Livi's Back In Town
by purplemintpatty
Summary: Starts after the end of Season 6.  House and Cuddy are already on the rocks and House is more miserable and depressed than ever.  He disappears for a few days.  Wilson finds him and gives House the best news he could possibly hear:  "Livi's Back In Town"
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER**: The guy with the scruffy beard and limp isn't mine. Wish he was. House and his minions belong to David Shore, Bad Hat Harry Productions. The Fox Network and NBC/Universal. I'm just borrowing them for awhile. I promise I'll give them back in time for the start of Season 7! (MAYBE!)

My story starts after the finale of Season 6. This is not a Huddy fic. If you're a Huddy, this story is not for you! In this story, the relationship between House and Cuddy went sour almost as soon as it started. No spoilers other than House and Cuddy are on the rocks and are about to end.

_It ended on the Fourth of July:_

"_Listen, Cuddy, if you hadn't come to my apartment that night, I would have caught the first flight I could have gotten on headed to Pittsburgh and went straight to Livi's house, but the joke would have been on me because she was already in Princeton!"_

"_Well, why hasn't she seen you until now then?" Cuddy hissed at House._

"_Cuddy, she has a new job, and she's a department head in a short-staffed hospital. I was probably the last thing on her mind until Wilson ran into her at St. Sebastian's last week!" House said in as low a voice as he could manage._

"_Well, she'd better be the last thing on your mind, House! She'd better not be on you mind, period! We're together now!" Cuddy snapped back._

_House stared her down. This was it. He had his out now, could end this, ugly or not, because he knew in his heart that Livi still cared for him. It would just take time to see which way the wind would blow. Live together or get married. He didn't care which one, as long as he could go home to her every night. "Oh, no we're not!" he growled as he whipped out his cell phone and called a cab._

"_House, what are you doing? Where are you going?" Cuddy whined. "I need you to help me back to Wilson's car. I won't make it in these shoes."_

_House stared at her feet for a minute then started laughing hard. "Cuddy, only you would wear FMP's to a picnic, get drunk and expect me of all people to help you walk back to the car. Take them off and walk barefoot back to the car Better yet, see if Wilson will give you a piggy back ride. I'm going home."_

_**CHAPTER ONE**_

"House! House! Open up! I know you're in there! Are you all right? Come on, damn it! Open up!" Wilson was almost in a panic as he pounded hard on the door of 221 B Baker Street. No one had seen or heard from House for four days, even Cuddy. He wouldn't answer his pager, cell or land line. The only way Wilson knew he was still alive was that his credit card company had called him this morning about some "unusual" charges appearing on his card.

As the Customer Service Rep read the list of charges to Wilson, he breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, House had lifted his Visa card. The charges were all from his favorite take out places and he had even had some groceries delivered yesterday and Chinese last night, and just for kicks, he ran up one hell of a bar tab. Some might think it very wrong to take a friend's credit card and use it without permission, and not answer said friend's calls, but that was House. In his own warped way, he was making sure that Wilson knew he was still alive without actually having to talk to him or anyone else for that matter. Wilson felt less guilty, but not much, about asking House to move out now that he knew House might just be sulking about something. Wilson could forgive House using his credit card easily since he now knew he was alive.

House was sitting on his couch, still in his pajamas, eating a bowl of cereal and watching a rerun of "All In The Family" on TV Land. The TV was barely audible, but it didn't matter. House had seen this episode many times. Wilson's pounding on the door was exacerbating the pounding in House's head. He had one hell of a hangover. He couldn't remember the last time he had one this bad.

House had been drinking more than usual the past few months. It wasn't a daily thing and he still showed up for work clean, sober and in pain every day, but nevertheless, he was concerned about it and the increased throbbing in his leg, but as usual, he was being stubborn, barely discussing it in therapy or seeking medical attention for his leg.

The depression and misery he felt now was so deep that even using Wilson's credit card to buy his food didn't make him happy. Using it to rent insane amounts of porn DVD's wouldn't have cheered him up, and neither did the bar tab he ran up last night. Actually, House knew the reason for his mood. Cuddy.

Last night, he couldn't take it anymore and finally went out and got totally plowed. House didn't know how he got home, but both his car and bike were parked outside and when he checked his wallet, nothing was missing, and neither were any of his possessions.

He had a very hazy memory of a couple of Good Samaritans putting him in his car, seeing him safely home, putting him in his pajamas and pouring him into his bed. Apparently he didn't get into a fight with anyone, either. A quick check of himself when he stumbled into his bathroom this morning revealed no bruises or bumps. He wished he knew who the Good Samaritans were.

House knew should go back to the bar and try to find out who they were to thank them, but why bother? His life wouldn't be any better or different than it ever had been, even if he let up on the drinking, which he knew should and could. The drinking was a coping mechanism and a bad one at that and he knew it. House was frustrated with his life. He was trying to do everything right and he was still miserable and depressed. Nothing was happening fast enough for him. When the misery and depression got to be too much to bear, he would crawl into a bourbon bottle, especially after Wilson asked him to move out.

When Cuddy walked into his apartment that night after Hannah died in the ambulance, he had been sitting on the bathroom floor for God knows how long, looking at the Vicodin in his hand. He was fighting the urge to swallow them and wait for the blessed numbness he remembered so well. Cuddy had admitted that she had always been in love with him, that she couldn't help it.

Her declaration of love stopped him. Since then, he and Cuddy had been "a couple", but House quickly realized that it had been a huge mistake, which added another layer to his depression and misery. He was still looking for the missing puzzle piece. Cuddy wasn't it after all.

House now realized that if he had tried for more than a one-night stand with Cuddy back in Michigan all those years ago, he would have instantly known that doing her once was all they would ever have. There was nothing between them but a strong sexual attraction that they felt and acted on then. That was it in a nutshell. That part of the puzzle was finished.

It took House all these years to realize that. Instead, he had become Wile Coyote and Cuddy was the Roadrunner, always just out of his reach. When he finally caught her after years of chasing her, finally had what he thought was missing in his life, he was sorely disappointed. Like Wile, who had only caught the Roadrunner once, he didn't know what to do once he "caught" Cuddy. He thought she held the key to his happiness. He was wrong.

Even though Cuddy had been the one who had suggested the surgery that left him a cripple, he still chased after her, mooning over her all these years. He had twisted himself into a pretzel to prove he was the man for her to the point where before his breakdown, he had thought that she he helped him detox from Vicodin and slept with him. What he thought was real was an hallucination, and that finally pushed him over the edge.

Although Cuddy had apparently moved on before that, with Lucas of all people, he still wanted her, still kept twisting himself in knots to make her see he was the one for her. What was wrong with him? He needed to be telling this to Dr. Nolan, not himself.

Other than his mother, the only other relationship he had with a woman was with Stacy, and look how that ended. Even though he still had a few good memories of his years with Stacy, deep down, he knew he knew they weren't enough for him to completely forgive and forget what she had done to him when he had his infarction.

He had to forget before he forgave and how could he forget? He was reminded of it every time he looked at what was left of the muscle in his right thigh and he was in constant pain, would be for the rest of his life. He ended up a drug addict and had a breakdown last year. Even though he walked through doors of Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital voluntarily, that was most frightening period of his life. He was not in control of anything. He was scared out of his wits and did his best to disrupt hospital procedure until it hit him he wouldn't get out unless he cooperated. House did what he needed to do to get Nolan to discharge him, got out and got his medical license reinstated, but he was still miserable.

Well, Stacy wasn't the only other real relationship in his life. There was Livi. He had almost forgotten about her because of the hell he had put himself through, was still putting himself through. Odd that he would think of her now. He hadn't seen her for about three years or so, but his memories made him smile a little.

Livi was Livia Anna Bonofiglio. She had lived across the street from his parents in Quantico. Her parents were killed in a car crash when she was six and her grandparents adopted and raised her. Her mother's parents were so grief stricken at losing their only daughter, they passed away within six months of their daughter and son-in-law, leaving their granddaughter a nice inheritance which her grandfather immediately invested for her college education.

It was an easy matter for Tony and Rosa Bonofiglio to adopt the little girl. Tony was a doctor in the Marines. By the time he retired, it would be with the rank of General, the highest the Corp had to offer. At the time Livi's parents were killed, he had still been on active duty at Quantico. He had never moved around at all since joining the Marines. Once he completed basic training, he was moved to the base hospital and had been there ever since, with some side trips to Bethesda to treat various politicians over the years.

Tony and Rosa offered a stable, loving home environment for their granddaughter and were financially secure. They had already been named her guardians if anything happened to her parents anyway, so Livi moved to Quantico. House was ten at the time.

The little girl with the curly, dark copper -colored hair and deep blue, almost purple eyes was hell on wheels once she had finished mourning her parents. As a matter of fact, House had been the one to nickname her that. The first time he had called her "Hell on Wheels" a year after she had moved in with her grandparents, Livi had damn near torn him to pieces she was so pissed. House was having a hard time holding her off; his mother had impressed upon him that a gentleman did not hit woman under any circumstances whatsoever.

Tony saw his granddaughter trying to tear House apart and he hurried across the street to find out what had set Livi off. "Greg, what's wrong here? What's the matter with her?" Tony asked the young Greg House with a smile as he held back his granddaughter.

Before he had a chance to answer, Livi piped up. "He called me a bad name, Pap Pap! Make him take it back!" Livi was struggling to break free from her grandfather and young Greg was afraid his father would come home any minute now and punish him for "causing a scene" or that Tony would tell him. Either way, Greg figured he was screwed.

"Sir, I just called her "Hell on Wheels" Greg stammered, afraid of what could happen if his father found out. Tony looked at the boy. Blythe House was a good woman who was making the best of a bad marriage, and he had no fondness for John House and the way he treated his son. He treated the men in his command better.

"That's okay, son. I'll just take her home and explain it to her. This will be just between us, don't worry." Tony had replied as he picked up the still spitting mad Livi and took her home. House had breathed a sigh of relief. His father would never know.

Livi's grandparents had been undecided about it, but after she tried to tear Greg apart, they enrolled her in a Catholic school. Livi was as smart as a whip, and there would be more chances for her to exercise her intelligence in that setting. Tony and Rosa hoped that she would be challenged enough in the smaller classes that she could work off some of her energy, and there would be a little more discipline than the public schools offered.

Unfortunately, although she was the star pupil in her class, she became the bane of the nun's existence with her sassy attitude. Apparently, not even the nuns could tame her!

No child in the neighborhood dared to talk back to John House or go in his yard to retrieve a ball when they were playing. They were all afraid of him. Not Livia. She sassed him back, too, but for some reason known only to him, John House allowed the little girl to get away with it (and he never heard about the incident between his son an Livi as long as he lived). She challenged him at every turn, like she did with everyone else and never backed down. John House liked her spirit, would have liked to have a dozen men like her in his command.

Instead of going back to his apartment to find his secret, secret, secret, secret stash of Vicodin and staring at it for God knows how long and having Cuddy find him, House should have cleaned himself up, thrown a few things in a bag, driven to the airport in Philly and caught the first plane headed for Pittsburgh and the sanctuary of Livi's love for him. Livi was working at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She had become a doctor like her grandfather.

In less than a week of Cuddy and House being together, House knew he had made a mistake, but he had not been able to find a way to end it without World War Three breaking out. He behaved as badly as he possibly could toward Cuddy, like he had in Mayfield, hoping she would take the hint, but to no avail.

After all these years, Cuddy knew he couldn't be pushed into something he didn't want, but she still kept trying to get him to move in with her. "We're not married. I still need my own place, Cuddy." he would say as he dressed as quickly as he could and limped out of her bedroom every time they had sex. He wouldn't even stay the night. He couldn't make himself do it. "I can't stay here. This is what you get with me. Take it or leave it."

Cuddy didn't accept his ultimatum, even though she could see the relationship was failing. Instead, she made House's work life nearly intolerable as their personal life had become. She started to play the Boss Card in the worst way possible. In the short period of time they had been a couple, she was interfering with his work or lack there of and how he handled his department and team more than she had before.

She was literally trying to control his every move like she controlled the hospital. Her actions made everything worse for him, especially his leg. That's why he was depressed and miserable, had the desire to just disappear. Not die. He really didn't have the nerve to or want to kill himself. He just wanted disappear into the woodwork or something until his misery was gone. At the rate he was going, he felt like he could disappear forever.

Wilson was still pounding on the door. House couldn't take it anymore. "Wilson, use your own damn key to get in or get the hell out of here! Stop making all that damn noise before the neighbors call the police!" House bellowed, making his head throb more. What he wouldn't give for the numbness of Vicodin now! But he was not going to go down that road again, regardless of how much he was tempted, how much pain his leg caused him. He was afraid it would be a one-way trip if he did.

Wilson fumbled for his key ring, found the right key and let himself in and looked around. The apartment was in better shape than he thought it might be in. He had expected to see that House had trashed the place in anger and frustration, but thankfully, he hadn't.

The apartment wasn't dirty per se. The place was just littered with empty take out containers and soda cans from House's take out orgy. House might not iron his clothes all the time, but he and his clothes were always clean and so was the apartment except for the scattered food containers.

Wilson went into the kitchen and got a big Hefty Bag and started cleaning up for his friend. It took him a good ten minutes or so, and he even was nice enough to take the trash out for House.

By the time Wilson was done, House had finished his cereal and stretched out on his couch, trying to sleep off the rest of his hangover. Wilson stood in front of the couch, blocking his view of the TV, hands on hips ready to give House a lecture.

House spoke before Wilson had a chance to form a sentence. "Wilson, just skip the lecture and get the hell out, okay? You found me, I'm alive and I haven't done any drugs. I'm just hung over and I want to be left alone. Do you mind?" He put his arm over his eyes hoping Wilson would take the hint. Wilson turned from House, but not to leave.

"Damn it to hell!" House said to himself. Wilson had gone into the kitchen to look for his friend's Ibuprofen and get him a glass of water and an ice pack.

He went back to the couch where House was pretending to be sleeping, but Wilson knew better. House's breathing was erratic, a sign his leg was throbbing with more than the usual level of pain. "I'm not going away, House." Wilson said in a quiet voice.

House snatched the Ibuprofen out of Wilson's hand and quickly dried swallowed them, ignoring the water. He did grab the ice pack and placed it on his forehead. "Okay, Nurse Wilson. The patient is still alive and doing as well as can be expected, now go report to Mommy and make sure you tell her I want to be left alone by everyone, especially her." House snarled.

"House." Wilson said as patiently as he could. "Livi's in town." House opened one bloodshot eye and glared at his friend. "Wilson, that's not even funny. Why are you doing this to me? Trying to get me mad enough to get off this couch and punch you? Why would she be here? There aren't any orthopedic conferences going on around here and Princeton isn't exactly the vacation spot of New Jersey." House grumbled.

"She moved here." Wilson replied. House sat up on the couch, causing another wave of pain to shoot through his aching head. "What do you mean, moved here? Livi quit UPMC? When?" Trying not to laugh at House's sudden interest, Wilson replied, "She's at St. Sebastian's. I ran into her on Friday afternoon when I went over there for a consult."

"St. Sebastian's?" House queried. "What the hell is she doing there and how long has she been in Princeton? Why hasn't she tried to call me? She has my number! Why didn't you tell me she was in Princeton?"

"I just got done telling you I only found out Friday and I just found you now. She's their new Chief of Orthopedic Medicine and she's only been here a few months. You know how it goes, House. Settling in to a new place, new job. Probably hasn't had a lot of spare time to call an old friend." Wilson went on, happy to see House show a genuine interest in something.

Wilson knew the thing with Cuddy was a bust now, probably one of the worst things House could have done and Wilson honestly wished he hadn't encouraged his friend to pursue his so called interest in her.

The progress House made since his breakdown seemed to have stalled since he and Cuddy hooked up and looked like it was moving backwards with this little four-day disappearance. Thank God all he had done was run up Wilson's credit card a little bit and got drunk. He hadn't gone out to score some Vicodin or other drugs. That was a good sign.

House had a thoughtful look on his face which then turned to one of sadness. "Does she know what happened to me, Wilson?"

"Yes, she does, House. I've been in touch with her off and on since you almost went to jail. She wanted to drop everything and come to help before you landed in Mayfield, but I told her you would be furious if you knew I had told you what was happening and that you would think she came only out of pity." Wilson replied cautiously, stepping back from the couch, hoping House wouldn't explode at his interfering between him and Livi.

That statement earned Wilson one of House's death glares, but he didn't say anything about his interference. Of course Wilson had told her to stay away, the interfering bastard. He thought he had it all under control. Yeah, right! At the time, House thought it odd that Livi didn't show up at John House's funeral, but he was beginning his final descent into Hell and it slipped his mind. Now it made sense.

Whether Wilson had told her anything or not, she would have seen right away that he was in trouble if she had come. She would have tried to bring him back to Pittsburgh with her, and he would have fought like hell against it. To show her respect, she had sent a huge floral arrangement to the funeral home addressed to his mother and him and had a dish garden sent directly to his mother knowing how much she loved flowers and gardening.

"Well, you were right about that, I would have done my best to make her leave although Livi's never pitied me. She's always been honest and straightforward with me. It' s very refreshing. But you shouldn't have told her to stay away. She would have fought tooth and nail to help me, done whatever it took. She wouldn't have let me send her away no matter how much I tried to hurt her, how much crap I dished out. Fighting with her might have helped me." House said in a broken voice. "She might have saved me that trip to the looney bin."

Wilson was surprised that all House had done was give him a dirty look and had instead had opened up a little bit to him. That was huge. He really had expected House to go off on him like fireworks. Another good sign, perhaps? Maybe.

"We had lunch and I caught her up a little bit, then Sam and I took her to dinner Friday night before you pulled your disappearing act and I told her everything that happened since the last time she saw you." Wilson said.

House didn't respond at all. He was just staring straight ahead, a far away look in his eyes. Livi was here now. "Maybe." thought House. "Maybe we can get together now. Maybe I can start living again."

"She's one of your secrets that I don't know well at all and I wish I did." Wilson said. "If you had allowed me in all the times you two sailed in and out of each other's lives, had let me get to know her instead of disappearing with her, I really would have advised her to come before you had your breakdown instead of telling her to stay away, that you would be fine. I would have insisted she come."

House looked thoughtful. "You told her about Cuddy?" "Yes, I did, House, but not that it's gone bad." Wilson said, studying his friend's reaction carefully. "She says she hopes everything works out for you, but she's there if you need a shoulder." That got a small smile from House. Livi probably knew him better than his own mother did. House had always been able to open up to her, even when they were kids.

Livi had declared she was in love with him when she was ten and he a tall, gangly fourteen year old, and nothing had really changed between them. She would always have his back whether he let her or not. Once Livi turned eighteen, their relationship morphed one more time into what had carried House through the years. She was about to go off to college and he to medical school. House had been her first, and he still wasn't sure who seduced who, but Livi was the best sex he had ever had in his life!

"House, I invited her to the picnic on Sunday." Wilson said, hesitation evident in his voice. He and Sam and House & Cuddy were going, House of course, under protest. He hated picnics. Actually, it was easier to compile a list of the things he liked rather than disliked, and his dislike of most things stemmed from the pain in his leg and his inability to do the things he used to be able to do. Like waking up every day pain free.

"Is she bringing a date?" House asked in that nonchalant way of his, only Wilson recognized the curiosity in his voice. Tempted to say "yes" just to screw with him, he took a good look at House. Now there was a gleam in House's eyes that Wilson hadn't seen since well before his breakdown. House wasn't this "animated" when Stacy had come back to Princeton, begging him to find out what was wrong with her husband. The gleam in House's eyes could light up the entire building.

"As far as I know, no." Wilson said, amused and pleased at House's interest. "I don't think she's seeing anyone at all. I don't think she's had the time to start a relationship." he said, trying to hide his smile.

"That was a good idea to invite her, Wilson. It's about time you had one!" House snarked, but the corner of his mouth lifted into one of those half smiles of his. His head still throbbed like a bitch, but for some reason, his leg didn't, at least not as much as it had been.

"Wilson, get the hell out of here so I can get cleaned up and go to work! And you're buying me lunch today!"

"House, when don't I buy you lunch?" Wilson said as he shook his head and left. This was going to be one hell of a picnic!

House was in a pretty good mood, at least for him, until he walked through the doors of PPTH right before noon. Cuddy spotted him immediately and marched over to him to start bitching at him for staying out of touch for the last four days, worrying her sick and then coming in at the crack of noon.

House wasn't in the mood for a lecture, especially since their situation was the cause of his "disappearance", so he just loudly snarked at her that he had spent the last four days in Atlantic City with a hooker and had just sobered up now. Then he went to find Wilson so they could have lunch.

Once again, House had managed to mortify Cuddy in front of half of the hospital. She hadn't been this mortified since right before House's breakdown when he hollered from the balcony that he had slept with her.

She went straight to her office and didn't come out for the rest of the day. She even had her lunch brought in. Around five, she finally had the nerve to text House to see if he was coming to her house that night.

"NOPE!" he cheerfully texted back to her. Still embarrassed, Cuddy waited until she could see that no one was in the Clinic and the lobby was practically empty. She picked up her briefcase and purse and hurried out the door to her car.

Cuddy was crushed. Okay, she knew it was wrong yelling at House in front of the staff and patients but what was she supposed to do? Lucas was a sure thing in her life and she had dumped him and his stability for House. Like House, Cuddy had quickly realized that he had gotten what he wanted from her back in Michigan. He caught her, now he was looking for a way to let her go. Catch and release, but Lisa Cuddy was not going to give up without a fight.

The rest of the week went fast for House, even though he didn't have a case and was forced into more Clinic hours so Cuddy could keep an eye on him. The picnic and fireworks were on Sunday, and he actually found himself looking forward to it, but he was still a little disappointed that Livi still hadn't tried to call him.

Since Livi's thought processes were always logical, he reasoned that she could be thinking her phone calls might not be welcomed since he was supposed to be with Cuddy, and because Wilson hadn't told her the relationship had gone sour quickly, her not calling made sense.

Regardless of how she felt about him. Livi wouldn't try to come between him and Cuddy, even if she knew there was nothing there. Obviously there wasn't anything on House's part since he was thinking of her constantly now. He was just going to bide his time, not a very easy thing for him to do. He wanted results and he always wanted them fast, but not this time. He had to take the time to see if he and Livi should have been together all along, could be together now for the rest of their lives. He had to get out of Hell. He could still see it over his shoulder.

A little more of the misery and depression that had cloaked House for so long lifted. His team thought he actually seemed a little bit happy, and that made them a little bit nervous, especially Foreman and Chase, who had been with him the longest. Was he back on Vicodin or something worse? They hoped not.

Finally, it was Sunday. House woke up in his own bed, alone, around ten, to sunshine coming in through the window. He smiled when he realized he was going to see Livi today and after the usual hassles of stretching and massaging his leg to get out of bed, he finally got up and took a long hot shower, staying in there until all the hot water was gone. His leg wasn't throbbing as much now.

Even though it was now past noon, he made himself breakfast. Bacon, eggs, toast, fresh coffee. He tried for over easy on the eggs, but the yolks broke, so he scrambled them instead of starting over.

After all, Wilson paid for his groceries, so it wouldn't be right to throw perfectly good eggs away because he couldn't get them over easy now, would it? Wasn't it a sin to waste food like that? House chuckled to himself as he did another unheard of thing. He actually cleaned up after himself and did not leave a mess for the cleaning lady that had been coming for the past three years, came while he was in Mayfield and came twice a week now.

He heard his cell phone ring. He limped into the living room to answer it. As he looked at the Caller ID, he swore.

"Son of a bitch! Cuddy already?" House growled to himself. "Is she trying to ruin the day before it starts?" He flipped the phone open. "What is it, Cuddy? I'm not supposed to pick you up until two. I'm not late yet." House snapped into the phone. Unconsciously, he began rubbing his leg.

All Cuddy could do on her end was close her eyes and try to control her frustration. She wasn't looking forward to this picnic anymore since she had found out about Livi, but she was determined to make the best of it. Then she added fuel to House's anger and asked him if they could to the picnic in her car instead of his old beater.

After a long, tense silence, House replied, "It's a nice day. We'll ride the bike." He knew what the response would be to that. She hated his bike with a passion.

"Absolutely not, House! You drive that bike like a maniac! We're going in my car!"

House groaned. "Well, call Wilson then and see if he doesn't mind taking us because I refuse to get in that ugly car of yours! I'd rather ride in his car."

Cuddy had instantly put House in such a bad mood, he wanted a drink right now. It was like Cuddy was deliberately trying to piss him off. She had known all week that Livi was going to be there, and she was not pleased about it and managed to mention it to House every time he came out of an exam room to get another file when he was in the clinic. She had even been taking his cell phone when she thought he wasn't looking, searching for evidence that he had called or texted Livi. House rarely bothered to clear his call lists and sent texts, but all Cuddy found was Livi's number in the directory. No calls or texts to her.

Refusing to take the bait because Cuddy wanted to argue and he wanted to stay in what was a good mood for him, House simply replied that Wilson and Sam had invited her, to take her complaints to one of them and limped back to an exam room or his office if his "punishment" for the day was over.

Cuddy finally headed for Wilson's office. Livi and Cuddy had never met, but Wilson had told Cuddy the precious little he knew about her, and she was not too pleased.

"If she's such an important part of his life, why wasn't she here to help him before he had his breakdown?" Cuddy demanded.

Wilson told her the same thing he told House. He told Livi to stay away because House would think she was here out of pity.

Cuddy wasn't sure if she bought that. From what Wilson had told her of House's relationship with Livi and how far back it went, Cuddy was certain that just her presence in Princeton could finish them off for sure.

She also remembered how House had been after he last saw her. It had been shortly after he had sent Stacy back to her husband, and House was just driving everyone crazy. Out of the blue, he asked Cuddy for some time off.

Taken aback because he had never taken any serious time off, Cuddy had approved his request. Now Cuddy realized he had gone to Livi. He was gone for a month and came back tanned and relaxed and normal, at least normal for him.

He was all right for almost a year after that, then he started taking more pills, had almost gone to jail, took more pills and became more dependent on them than ever, which led to his breakdown. House knew Livi was here now. That he had almost forgotten about her until now was a testament to how bad his breakdown had been.

Little did Cuddy know Livi not only knew about her, but she knew about Michigan and everything else in House's life except how badly his relationship with Cuddy was going. But she didn't know that Livi would never deliberately insinuate herself in the middle of this. Livi was staying away from House because Wilson had led her to believe that he was in a good relationship.

To try and keep the peace, Wilson and Sam agreed to drive Cuddy and House to the picnic. From the look on Cuddy's face, both Wilson and Sam didn't have much hope of the day going well. Cuddy looked like she was ready to explode and House just looked bored, as usual. Going out with House and Cuddy snarking at each other all night was bad enough, but couldn't they behave for at least a few hours today?

Sam could see House and Cuddy were finished. If Sam could believe what her ex had told her about the relationship House had with Livi over the years, she would be better for him than any number of sessions he could have with Dr. Nolan.

Sam had noticed that House's progress with Dr. Nolan had seemed to come to a stand still too. She and Jim had debated about telling House Livi was in town before they took her to dinner, debated all the way to the restaurant. Sam wasn't entirely sure they should get in the middle of House and Cuddy's so called relationship, even though House was the Master Meddler of all time and had tried to meddle with them, break them up.

After she met Livi, she decided telling House was the right thing to do and let the chips fall where they may. Sam reasoned that inviting an old friend to a picnic wasn't meddling. After spending the evening with Livi, Sam could tell that she was everything Wilson said she was and maybe more.

Even though she wasn't one of House's fans, Sam didn't want to see him crack up again. House might not be able come back from another breakdown and Jim would never forgive himself if he lost House for good to a mental institution. He still felt guilty about asking House to move out of the loft. According to Jim, House had been in an excellent mood since he found out Livi was back in town and he was going to see her today.

When they got to the park, Wilson quickly found a handicapped space to park his car in, and House handed over his tag to hang from the rear view so Wilson wouldn't get a ticket. The picnic grove they were in was not to far from where they parked. House could sometimes walk short distances without too much discomfort, but it was an unpredictable thing. He never knew until he tried. Sometimes it was okay, sometimes it earned him a week of soaking in a hot tub and parking his butt on the couch with a heating pad on his butchered thigh and a glass of bourbon in his hand.

House also now believed that some of his pain had a psychological cause, especially after Wilson had donated a lobe of his liver to his so-called "friend" that he went hunting with once a year. House's leg had started throbbing immediately after he found out what Wilson was doing, but subsided when Wilson came through the surgery and then found out that his friend was not going back to his wife and daughter, but staying with the trophy girlfriend.

It started up again when Wilson started seeing Sam and he found out that he had bribed his team to spend time with him so he wouldn't be alone. The icing on the cake was House actually telling Cuddy the last thing he wanted was to be friends with her. House's drinking and leg pain increased exponentially with each blow to his still fragile psyche.

Today was not going to be an easy day for him no matter how he looked at it now. It had been hard to get out of bed this morning, but the long, hot shower had been a big help. He was doing fairly well until Cuddy called complaining like a screaming meemie about his car and bike. His leg started throbbing then.

He fumbled in his pocket for his Ibuprofen and dried swallowed two more. He was determined to walk to that damn grove on his own and start drinking the beer he had asked Wilson to bring. He hadn't had a beer or anything else since he heard Livi was in Princeton. He wanted to be sober so he could thoroughly enjoy her presence.

Since he wasn't driving, thanks to Cuddy's complaints, now he didn't give a damn if he was sober or not, that's how angry he was. Good grief, was Cuddy this much of a nag the whole time he was on Vicodin that it just didn't matter because he was so stoned?

While he once again wished for the numbness Vicodin could bring, he was still afraid to go down that road ever again. It would be so easy, too. He still knew where to score a valid scrip on the street.

"Good." House told himself. "As long as you stay scared, you have a better chance of staying off the pills for good."

Wilson and Sam carried the food and drink coolers to the grove Wilson had reserved for them. It was nice and cool there and faced the direction the fireworks were going to be shot from. Sam had made loads of fried chicken, and there was corn on the cob, fresh cantaloupe and a huge salad. They all knew House wouldn't go anywhere near the salad.

Livi had called and asked if she could bring anything, that she made a mean potato salad.

Sam said, "Sure, why not. I know the boys won't touch the salad I'm making, and you're supposed to eat junk food at a picnic anyway."

Livi was working, but had promised to get away and be there in time for dinner at five. Sam and Cuddy started talking about an art exhibit they had just seen in New York, and Wilson and House got on the topic of baseball.

Wilson was defending his favorite team, the Yankees, and House was bored arguing with him.

"Wait until Livi gets here if you want to talk more baseball." House snarked. "She hates the Yankees with a purple passion and she'll cut you up and use you for bait for even mentioning them to her!"

The mention of Livi's name got Cuddy's attention and she looked at her watch. Almost five.

"Well." she said snidely. "When do I get to meet this paragon of all virtues? Is she like you, House, always late?

At that moment, Livi walked into the grove. From the uncomfortable look on Wilson's face, she figured she was the topic of conversation, and within a few seconds, she knew for sure when she was within earshot and heard Cuddy's remark about her being a paragon of all virtues.

As Livi approached the grove, she had an opportunity to view Greg and the others without them knowing they were being watched, totally ignoring the appreciative stares her figure got from every man she passed. Wilson was dressed as casually as he knew how, in perfectly pressed khaki pants and a navy blue polo shirt. It always gave Livi a chuckle. No matter what he did, casual or dressy, he always managed to look like a yuppy, but it worked for him, and he really didn't stand out in this crowd.

There were all sorts of crazy outfits here today. People walking around in bathing suits that had no business wearing bathing suits (the park was big enough to have a pool and a wave pool), people dressed up like Uncle Sam or the Statue of Liberty, servicemen and women in their fatigues, lucky enough to be on leave for a few days, and Livi even had two mullet sightings on the way in. There were plenty of NASCAR T-shirts to bee seen, including ones on the two mullet sightings. Livi didn't get the fascination with NASCAR. All they were doing was making a left turn as far as she was concerned!

Sam was dressed casually in khaki capris, a white tank top and leather sandals. Of course Greg was in jeans and a t-shirt. She would have been surprised to see him dressed any other way. Then she observed the attractive, dark haired petite woman who had just handed him a beer.

"So that's the famous Cuddy." Livi said to herself. She was well dressed, but over dressed for a picnic in a park. She had on silver-gray raw silk capri pants with a matching tank top, and gray leather stiletto sandals. Livi spotted her matching leather clutch on the table. Cuddy looked perfect, from head to toe, which made her stand out, but Livi thought that was the reaction Cuddy wanted. Livi admitted to herself that Cuddy was beautiful, but she couldn't help thinking, "Stilettos at a picnic? Is she crazy?"

Livi loved that type of shoe, loved Cuddy's outfit, but her feet didn't like stilettos. Not to say that she didn't wear heels, but she always passed the stilettos by when she went shoe shopping. They made you look good, but it wasn't worth the pain.

Livi took a good look at Greg. His body language spoke volumes to her. She could tell that Greg wanted to be anywhere Cuddy wasn't. "Damn!" Livi thought to herself. "Greg's still in a butt load of trouble!"

Jim spotted her first and jumped up to greet her. Lived hugged him and apologized for being late.

"Livi, you're not late, you're right on time!" Sam exclaimed as she took the bowl Livi was carrying and put it on the table.

House saw her at the same time Wilson did and tried to stand to greet her.

Livi noticed the pain on his face and hurriedly went over to him so he wouldn't try to get up.

"Don't get up, Greg." she said as she briefly kissed the stubble on Greg's cheek. House felt like she had branded him with her lips. "It's good to see you again. How long has it been? Three years?" Livi said with a smile.

House was grateful that she immediately came over to him so he wouldn't suffer the embarrassment of needing help to stand up and greet her, although he wanted to throw his arms around her and give her a lip lock that would curl her toes! He smiled.

"It's good to see you again, Liv. I think it has been that long, maybe longer. Sanibel Island, right?" He asked with a mischievous smile.

They had spent a month there the last time they were together, most of it naked. House could have sworn he saw Livi blush a little. They did things in the lake behind that private cottage that scared the fish!

Some of the tension had eased out of House's face at the sight of Livi . Sam and Wilson noticed. So did Cuddy. They also noticed something in House's eyes resembling love. Cuddy's eye's narrowed with jealousy.

Livi felt someone looking daggers at her. She turned to face Cuddy. "Oh, hi there! I didn't mean to ignore you. You must be Dr. Cuddy. I'm Livia Bonofiglio. I've heard so much about you from Greg, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." Livi said sweetly as she held out her hand. Cuddy reluctantly took it.

With that dark copper-colored hair and dark blue eyes, Cuddy had to admit, if only to herself, that this woman was attractive. She had a nice rack, too. Cuddy hadn't known what to expect, but she could see why House was attracted to her. She didn't know she was a doctor, either. Wilson had left that part out.

Sam couldn't take the tension any more. "Why don't we eat now? Jim, could pass the paper plates around, please? Livi, here's a spoon for your famous potato salad."

House perked up. He had always loved Livi's potato salad. "Liv, please tell me you made that potato salad yourself." House said.

Livi was an excellent cook. He missed that. Cuddy could barely boil water. It was a good thing her housekeeper also cooked, or CYS would have taken Rachel from Cuddy long ago. Other than the fact she was a lousy cook, one thing House gave Cuddy credit for was that she was turning into a good mother for Rachel.

"Of course I made it, Greg." Livi replied as she helped Sam and Wilson set the food out. Her manners wouldn't allow her to sit and be served, even if she was a guest. Cuddy just sat there. "I haven't forgotten how much you love it or my cooking." Livi smiled as she pushed the bowl toward him so he could help himself.

Under other circumstances, she would have gladly made him a plate and served him. But Cuddy was still throwing daggers at her with her eyes, so she chose the safer course and let Greg help himself. He was never shy around food anyway.

Livi sat next to Wilson across the table from House and Cuddy. House was sitting across from Livi at the end of the table so he could keep his bad leg stretched out. Even though he seemed to be throughly engrossed in his meal, he kept checking Livi out. He really wasn't bothering to hide the fact. Livi was dressed casually herself, and House liked it.

"This is what you wear to a picnic." he said to himself as he looked her up and down. Denim shorts, a Pittsburgh Pirate tank top that showed her curves and purple flip flops. That crazy curly hair of hers was pulled back in a ponytail, partially covered by a Pirates baseball cap.

Livi's grandfather had grown up in the Bloomfield section of Pittsburgh, "Little Italy", where many Italian immigrants to the city settled. Tony Bonofiglio had instilled a love of all things Pittsburgh in his granddaughter, including sports. That's why she went to the University of Pittsburgh to do her undergraduate studies and getting into the medical school was a no brainer because of her grades and her grandfather was an alumnus and still made contributions to the school. Livi chose orthopedics as her specialty so she could get into sports medicine.

UPMC had a sports medicine division which dealt with athletic-type injuries and she got to meet a lot of the local athletes, both professional and high school. She was a big fan of all the Pittsburgh sports teams, especially the Pirates. Livi was a rabid baseball fan, even though her team had really sucked the past few years. The only teams Livi couldn't stand to watch were the Yankees and the Braves. Soon, Livi and Wilson got into a heated discussion about the Yankees over dinner and it continued well after they were finished. House was right. Livi cut him up and was ready to use him for bait.

House wasn't keeping track of how many beers he had downed since they got here, but he had enough to be practically drooling over Livi, but she carefully pretended not to notice. Cuddy was getting angrier by the second and Livi didn't want to add fuel to the fire right now, even though she was still "Hell on Wheels". The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife, and the only real conversation going on at the table was the one about the Yankees between Livi and Wilson.

Suddenly, Livi realized that Greg and Cuddy's relationship had already gone down the toilet. Wilson had conveniently left that part out, and Greg hadn't found a way out of this yet! That's why he looked so angry when she observed all of them on her way into the grove. Right now, Cuddy was probably thinking she was a threat to her!

Cuddy noticed that she and House were the only ones drinking the beer. Wilson wouldn't because he was driving, and Sam had only had one. Cuddy was trying to keep up with House, but she never could. Livi was drinking lemonade.

"Livia, why aren't you having a beer? Isn't it good enough for you?"

Cuddy was having trouble speaking clearly. One more beer would have her slurring her words all over the place. House chuckled evilly. Cuddy always was a light weight when it came to drinking. If memory served, Livi could probably still keep up with him when it came to drinking. It wouldn't be too hard for him to knock off a piece with Cuddy tonight, but he didn't want it. He had a good buzz going, and he wanted to stay in a good mood. Cuddy would definitely be a buzz kill.

Going against her nature and behaving herself for Greg's sake, Livi replied with a calmness she did not feel, "Oh, I rarely drink and drive, Dr. Cuddy, and I was never a beer drinker. Greg knows that. Besides, I have to go to back work after the fireworks." she said sweetly.

Sam was beginning to like Livi more and more. She could sense Livi's good behavior was against her nature, but to keep the peace, at least for now, she was trying to be civil, and she was behaving better than Cuddy was!

"Livi, why do you have to work tonight? You're the department head, you shouldn't have to!" Wilson exclaimed.

Cuddy's ears perked up at the mention of department head. Where did this creature work? What did she do?

"Livia, where do you work?" Cuddy demanded as she finally noticed the pager clipped to a belt loop on Livi's shorts.

Livi took exception to her tone and House knew it. He was waiting for her to tell Cuddy to go play in traffic, but then he realized Livi was going to bite her tongue for his sake.

"I'm the new Chief of Orthopedic Medicine at St. Sebastian's, Dr. Cuddy." Livi replied in as nice a tone as she could manage.

House chuckled to himself as he noticed that Livi kept addressing Cuddy as "Dr. Cuddy". Then Livi turned to Wilson to answer his question.

"Your lips to God's ears, Wilson!" Livi chuckled. "The entire hospital still short-staffed, and I'm not allowed to bring the four new doctors I hired on board until the fiscal year starts September 1st. Offers have been made and accepted and contracts have been signed, but I could still lose them between now and then and have to start the process all over again. The ER is in worse shape than my department. I volunteered to fill in this morning and I'm headed back after the fireworks. I have a feeling I'll be there until morning if they can't find someone to come in. The Fourth brings out all the loonies and we'll probably have our hands full all night."

House spoke up, "Liv, you still shouldn't have to work, especially twenty fours hours straight. You aren't a resident anymore! It sets a bad precedent for the rest of the department heads in all the hospitals!" Greg had a drunken grin on his face, but Livi knew he wasn't nearly as drunk as he pretended to be. He just had a buzz.

"Well, Greg, not all of us can run a diagnostics department and pretty much set their own hours so they can avoid emergencies! Besides, once I get my department fully staffed, I can a work normal eight hour day, but not until September! There aren't a lot of emergencies involving orthopedics!" Livi was smiling. House smiled back.

Cuddy was seething. "You're a doctor? Cuddy sneered in disbelief. The conversation finally penetrated her beer soaked brain.

"Summa cum laude, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, class of 1989." House snarked at her.

"Oh, look, the fireworks are starting." Livi said in an almost childlike voice.

House decided to watch her instead of the fireworks. He smiled to himself. She was four years younger than him, but she still liked fireworks, just like a little kid.

"Same expression on her face, too." he said to himself as he chugged the rest of his beer.

After about a half hour, the fireworks were over. House had gotten up about half way through the show to stretch out his leg and try to walk off some of the pain. Livi wanted to help him, but didn't want fireworks in here as well as the show the Zambelli's were putting on for them. She had a hunch she might be able to alleviate some of the pain Greg was in, but this wasn't the place to have that discussion.

She had the same hunch the last time they were together, but she was worried more about his Vicodin use/abuse then. Not wanting to ruin his vacation because he rarely took one, she kept her mouth shut, much against her better judgement. Everyone else stood up now and stretched from being seated for so long. Cuddy got up and sat right back down, too drunk to do anything.

House watched Livi as she stood and stretched. Her tank top stretched across her boobs, and his memory filled in what they looked like the last time they had been together. Greg Junior gave a little twitch inside his shorts. "Well, fuck me!" House said to himself. "She can still get a rise out of me without trying, even at my age and after everything I've put my body through! Cuddy couldn't do that even if she tried!"

Livi's pager started chirping. "Well, I'd better get going before they send the dogs after me." Livi said to everyone after she looked at it. Cuddy just glared at her. Livi hugged Wilson.

"Thanks for the invitation, Wilson. You too Sam." Livi hugged her as well. "I had a wonderful time."

She went over to Greg, giving him another quick kiss, this time deliberately on his lips. "It was really good to see you again Greg."

Livi held out her hand to Cuddy. "It was nice to meet you Dr. Cuddy. I hope we meet again soon." Cuddy pointedly ignored Livi's hand. Livi just shrugged and started to walk to her car.

"Livi, wait!" Wilson said. I'll walk you to your car." Livi turned around when Wilson called her.

"Only if you let me help you bring the coolers back to your car. Livi knew Cuddy would have trouble walking with or without those stupid shoes. Wilson and Sam should have their hands free in case she needed help. Greg would certainly be of no help. Between his leg and attitude, Cuddy was screwed if she had to rely on him tonight!

"Hey, Liv, how about lunch sometime soon? I'll even buy!" House yelled after her. Cuddy gave him a withering glare. Livi just smiled.

"As soon as I find some free time, Greg." Her tinkling laugh carried back to house and sent a shiver down his spine. Even though she was drunk, Cuddy saw House had feelings for this, this person.

"You'll do no such thing, House!" Cuddy stated flatly. House just looked at her. She was drunk, but he had a feeling she was pretending to be worse off than she really was so she could express her true feelings and tomorrow say she didn't mean it, that she was drunk.

"Cuddy, we're not engaged or married and you don't keep my social calendar. If I want to go to lunch or dinner with an old friend, I will." House said in a flat voice.

Sam just sat there quietly, hoping Jim would get back soon. She couldn't referee this by herself.

In the meantime, Wilson had sighed in relief. Livi knew what he was up to and he didn't have to stand on his head to get her to see that. Cuddy was a mess and would need help. When she drank, she got belligerent and Wilson wasn't looking forward to the ride home. They stopped at Wilson's car first and stowed the coolers away.

Livi hugged him again. "Thanks again for the invitation, Wilson. He's in a hell of a lot of trouble there, isn't he? Why didn't you tell me the truth?" she asked softly and sadly.

"Livi, he is in trouble, but be careful. Cuddy can be a real bitch if you cross her." Wilson replied.

Livi laughed. "Wilson, didn't Greg ever tell you the nickname he gave me when we were kids?"

Wilson was puzzled. "No, Livi, what are you talking about?"

"When I moved in with my grandparents, they were living across the street from Greg and his parents. There were a lot of kids in the neighborhood, mostly boys, and I ended up being a tom boy. Every time a ball went into the House's yard, they were afraid to go get it, so I went. Colonel House tried his best, but he didn't scare me at all. I even sassed him back and got away with it. That's when Greg started calling me "Hell on Wheels". I still am Hell on Wheels and a bitch to boot, so bring it on!

Wilson was still concerned. "Livi, she can make trouble for you."

"Let her try, Wilson. I can handle anything she can throw at me. I have no intention of deliberately seeking Greg out for any reason, even though I can see he's in one hell of a mess. He'll come to me on his own when he's ready if that 's what's going to happen. That's what he's always done, that's what's always worked and I don't expect that to change. That so-called relationship has already imploded. It's over." Livi said in a flat, emotionless voice.

"Here's my car, Wilson" Livi said as she stopped next to a "Write Me a Speeding Ticket" red Mustang. Wilson let out a long whistle when he saw the car. "Don't drool too much, Wilson." Livi said with a laugh. "It's not a stick! I never learned how to drive one."

"Livi, where do you live?" Wilson asked as he opened the door for her.

"Wilson, if I tell you, Greg will worm it out of you without you realizing it and make Cuddy go ballistic faster than she already is!" Livi said with another laugh. That made Wilson laugh too. "Just tell him what kind of car I drive. He'll be able to follow me home from work if he knows that! Let him play detective for awhile. It entertains him!" Wilson laughed again.

"You're right. Drive safe, Livi" Wilson said, but Livi never heard him. She had already stomped on the accelerator and took off like a bat out of hell. Wilson laughed. She liked speed too. He wondered if she had ever ridden the bike with House as he walked back to the grove, bracing himself for another possible round of fireworks.

When Wilson got back to the grove, he saw the look of panic on Sam's face and then looked at House and Cuddy. It was obvious they had been arguing and by the look on Sam's face, it had been bad. It was. Wilson was walking in on the end of the argument.

The minute he and Livi were out of earshot, Cuddy started in on House about her and accused him of lying, that he knew Livi had been in town all along and had been seeing her behind Cuddy's back. House snapped.

"I'd be a lot happier than I am right now if I had been, Cuddy. I thought she was still in Pittsburgh until Tuesday morning!" he hissed, trying not to make more of a scene than Cuddy already was.

"Liar!" she hissed back. House got in Cuddy's face.

"Listen, Cuddy, if you hadn't come to my apartment that night, I would have caught the first flight I could have gotten on headed to Pittsburgh and went straight to Livi's house, but the joke would have been on me because she was already in Princeton!"

"Well, why hasn't she seen you until now then?" Cuddy hissed at House.

"Cuddy, she has a new job, and she's a department head in a short-staffed hospital. I was probably the last thing on her mind until Wilson ran into her at St. Sebastian's last week!" House said in as low a voice as he could manage.

"Well, she'd better be the last thing on your mind, House! She'd better not be on you mind, period! We're together now!" Cuddy snapped back. House stared her down.

This was it. He had his out now, could end this, ugly or not, because he knew in his heart that Livi still cared for him. It would just take time to see which way the wind would blow. Live together or get married. He didn't care which one, as long as he could go home to her every night. "Oh, no we're not!" he growled as he whipped out his cell phone and called a cab.

"House, what are you doing? Where are you going?" Cuddy whined. "I need you to help me back to Wilson's car. I won't make it in these shoes."

House stared at her feet for a minute then started laughing hard. "Cuddy, only you would wear FMP's to a picnic, get drunk and expect me of all people to help you walk back to the car. Take them off and walk barefoot back to the car. Better yet, see if Wilson will give you a piggy back ride. I'm going home."

House turned and walked to the parking lot as fast as he was able to, leaving the three in the grove staring at his back.

"Good for you, House!" Sam said to herself.

The cab was already in the parking lot when House got there. "221 Baker Street." House said quietly. "Hundred buck tip if you make it quick and don't get us killed or pulled over." "Yes, sir!" the cabby said. House was the last fare of his shift and he wanted to get home as well. He drove quickly, but with assurance. He knew his stuff and they were in front of House's building in less than ten minutes. House was as good as his word. He paid the fare with a twenty and gave the driver his promised tip.

House let himself into his apartment, locked the door behind him and leaned against it sighing heavily. "I'm finally free of her!" House said to the empty apartment. A smile slowly overtook his face. He wasn't miserable anymore. Now he could focus on Livi. He knew he would get better now. Wait until Nolan hears this! He tossed his keys and phone on the coffee table and went to soak in his tub.

Amazingly, his leg wasn't hurting him that much right now, and it had been a pretty stressful day, but a long soak tonight would make for a better Monday, especially since he was off. The last thing he wanted to do was spend his day off in pain. He might try calling Livi later, but it the ER would probably be hectic and they wouldn't be able to have a real conversation. He debated on whether or not he should just get on his bike and stop in for a visit.

"I have time." he said out loud again as he eased his body into the hot bath. He was getting drowsy and relaxed, but he soaked until the water began to get cold, hauled himself out of the tub, dried off. He felt much better as he pulled on a pair of clean boxers and crawled into his bed. He immediately fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of Livi and Sanibel Island.

Cuddy woke up around seven with a hangover. No sooner had her feet gingerly touched the floor than she started to get sick. She barely made it to the bathroom before she threw up. When she was through, she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She was a mess. Mascara and make up were smeared all over her face. Apparently, Sam and Wilson had been able to get her undressed and into bed before she passed out. Then the evening came back to her. House had dumped her in front of everyone.

"Oh, no you don't, Livia Bonofiglio. I waited too long for House! I won't give up!" Cuddy said to her reflection. She knew what she would do. Even though she had called it off with Lucas, it wasn't ugly like what happened with her and House last night. In some ways, Lucas was more mature than House. She would have him investigate Livia, look for something she could hold over her head so she would stay away from House.

First, she stripped off her pajamas and got in the shower and washed off all traces of last night and washed her hair. When she was through, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her head was throbbing, but she no longer looked like Halloween. A little Visine would take care of the bloodshot eyes. She did that, brushed her teeth and went to dry her hair. She got dressed, stripped the makeup-stained sheets from her bed and went downstairs. She smelled coffee. Thank God her housekeeper was here today. Rachel would be screaming in her crib right now if it weren't for Susie.

Rachel was in her high chair, playing with her Cheerios.

"Good morning, Dr. Cuddy." Susie said. "What would you like for breakfast?"

"Morning, Susie. Just some black coffee and toast this morning." Cuddy replied, absent mindedly playing with Rachel.

"Susie, how long can you stay today? I have an important errand to run, and I gave Marina the day off . I may not be back until lunch time. I'll pay the overtime." Cuddy said.

"I can stay all day if you need me, Dr. Cuddy. It's not a problem." replied the cheerful housekeeper.

"Thank you, Susie. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this. Oh, do you mind putting clean sheets on my bed?" Cuddy said as she kissed Rachel good bye.

"Not a problem, Dr. Cuddy." Susie said as she finished clearing the table. Rachel and I will wash some clothes, too." The little girl giggled in her high chair.

Cuddy found her keys and purse and headed to St. Sebastian's. She called Lucas on the way over and explained what she wanted, the most detailed investigation he had ever done. Cost was not an issue. Lucas reluctantly agreed to do it. Cuddy didn't know it would be a waste of time and money.

Unbeknownst to her or House, Lucas had House under surveillance for sometime, even before Cuddy broke up with him, but not to dig up any dirt. He actually liked House and was worried about him, even though he "pranked" him and Wilson and set off the sprinkler's in Wilson's new loft.

Lucas hadn't been able to find anything pointing to House seeing anyone behind Cuddy's back. He hadn't even seen House with a hooker after he and Cuddy got together. As a matter of fact, two of Lucas's friends were the ones who got House safely home last week when he got so drunk he could barely stand.

At St. Sebastian's, Livi was practically asleep on her feet. True to her predictions, the ER had been insane last night with people coming in with all sorts of injuries, burns from firecrackers leading the hit parade. She even had to treat two gunshot wounds. They weren't really serious, but gunshot wounds meant dealing with the police department and a mountain of paperwork. That could wait.

Her relief had just shown up fifteen minutes ago, and Livi couldn't wait to go home, take a long, hot shower and collapse in bed until tomorrow morning. Better yet, maybe she would take the day off. She had been up for almost 24 hours. There were dark smudges under her eyes, but she still turned the heads of the patients as well as the staff as she left the ER.

As she headed toward the elevator and her new office, one of the ER nurses handed her a message slip. It was from Dr. Cuddy.

"What the hell?" Livi said out loud. The note requested her presence in the cafeteria as soon as she was free. Livi looked at the nurse.

"Sarah, how long has Dr. Cuddy been waiting to see me?" Livia asked.

"I don't know, Dr. Bonofiglio, I just got here. Let' see if someone wrote a time on it." Eight forty five. It was nine thirty now.

Hell on Wheels decided to make Cuddy wait a littler longer, so she went up to her office and got her things so she could leave as soon as she found out what the hell Cuddy wanted. She could use another cup of coffee before she went home anyway, and St. Sebastian's had very good coffee for a hospital, almost as good as her own.

Ten minutes later, she walked into the cafeteria, looking around for Cuddy. She saw her alone in a corner booth. Cuddy was hard to miss. She was perfectly dressed again, this time in black skinny jeans and a clingy red silk t-shirt. Stilettos again, but these were red peep toe pumps. Livi nodded he head to acknowledge that she had seen Cuddy and got her coffee. She took a deep breath and went over to the booth.

"Dr. Cuddy, what brings you here today? I thought you would be spending the day with Greg." Livi said as she sipped her coffee. Livi almost groaned out loud with pleasure as the coffee went down. The caffeine was life itself, even though Livi must have had a gallon of caffeinated beverages during the night.

Cuddy's eyes narrowed. Livi still looked good, even without makeup and she had been up for almost twenty four hours straight. This woman was either lying and knew House had broken up with her last night or she knew nothing at all and House had been telling the truth all along. Cuddy decided to go along with Livi knew. She wasn't in the mood to give anyone the benefit of the doubt.

"I suppose you know what happened last night after you left the picnic, don't you?" Cuddy questioned.

"No, I don't. Do you mind telling me what you're talking about, Dr. Cuddy? I've been up for nearly twenty four hours, maybe longer. I've lost track of time. I'm in no mood to play "Twenty Questions" with you." Livi snapped back.

"Don't play innocent with me, Livia! I don't believe you don't know House called it off between us last night!" Cuddy hissed.

"What the hell are you talking about?" That took Livi completely by surprise. "Greg broke up with you last night? How the hell would I know anything about that? I was the first one to leave! I've been in the ER since ten thirty last night. How am I supposed to know Greg broke up with you?" Livi was getting pissed. She saw no reason to behave herself now.

"After you left, we got into a big fight and he said we were through. He called a cab and left the park alone. Did he come here?" Cuddy replied in a tight voice.

"Dr. Cuddy, I'm very sorry to hear that, but what does that have to do with me? I haven't seen or heard from Greg since I left the park!" Livi said

"Livia, do you really expect me to believe that you haven't heard from House since the last night?" Cuddy practically snarled.

That was it for Livi. She reached into her briefcase and pulled out her cell phone and took her pager out of her lab jacket. She slid them across the table to Cuddy.

"Here, Dr. Cuddy. Check my pager and cell to see if Greg tried to contact me. If you want to see if he actually called the hospital or came to the ER, I think you'll need a lawyer to subpoena the hospital phone records and security tapes." Livi snarled right back. Livi was, well Livi was livid now!

Livi got even angrier when Cuddy actually had the balls to check her pager and cell to see if Greg had tried to get in contact with her last night!

"I waited too long for this relationship with House." Cuddy replied when she was satisfied that House had not paged or called Livi last night, although Livi could have cleared the call lists before she came in here. She'd let it go until Lucas checked her number as well as House's.

"Dr. Cuddy, if you know Greg at all, you know you can't force him to do anything he doesn't want to do. He can give stubborn lessons to mules. Is that the kind of relationship you want? Forced, obligated?" Livi wondered.

"What do you mean, obligated?" Cuddy's voice was almost a screech.

"Dr. Cuddy, I had dinner with Wilson and Sam last week. He told me everything, including what happened after that building collapsed in Trenton, and that you may have stopped him from taking Vicodin again. If your presence did stop him from taking Vicodin, I am eternally grateful to you. I am also aware that you lied to keep him out of jail when he got arrested for possession with intent to distribute narcotics. I'm grateful for that, too. We both know he could never survive in jail. Wilson told me most of what's gone on with Greg since I the last time I saw him, and I wish I hadn't listened to him and stayed away, that he didn't think Greg would accept my help. I might have been able to prevent his breakdown. The only thing Wilson left out was how lousy your relationship turned out to be, but that was obvious to me as soon as I laid eyes on you and Greg yesterday!" Livi was having a hard time keeping her voice down now.

"Livia, I only came here to warn you to stay away from House. He and I belong together. I can make life very miserable for you. I know the chief of medicine here at St. Sebastian's. One word from me and you'll be packing your bags for a one-way trip to nowhere. I can also see to it that no hospital on the East Coast will hire you. You'll be lucky to get your old job back!" Cuddy sneered. She did carry clout in the medical community, but as she watched Livi take all this in, she saw that she wasn't afraid of her or her threat.

"Oh, I didn't know you knew Dr. D'Antonio that well. He went to medical school with my mother's younger brother. I'll be sure to tell him you stopped by today." Livi said with sarcasm dripping from every syllable that came out of her mouth. Hell on Wheels had gotten her point across. She knew exactly where to poke the sharp stick, just like House. Livia Bonofiglio was no one to screw with.

Livi had a very smug smile on her face. Now she knew Greg was free, and hopefully, she would be able to help him deal with his demons and his pain. She had failed him once by listening to Wilson. She should have followed her gut and told him to go play in traffic. She wouldn't fail Greg again, not now, when he needed help so badly.

They really did love each other, but this weird relationship somehow worked for them. She had a few relationships over the years, but they all paled in comparison to what she had with Greg. She only regretted they never had children, married or not. Greg carried emotional scars from what John House had done to him and he was afraid he would do the same to his own child.

Having Greg's baby was a moot point now. Livi had a partial hysterectomy when she was thirty. She wouldn't have been able give him a child, even if he wanted one. She had considered adoption, but she had been on the waiting list of several agencies without luck. She had buried the pain of being childless long ago.

"Dr. Cuddy, I have no plans to run into Greg accidentally or on purpose. I have never chased a man, including him. I don't plan on starting now." Livi said.

Cuddy was soundly defeated, but didn't have the good grace to admit it. She thought threatening Livi's job would be enough. She had no idea D'Antonio knew Livi's family. Cuddy bluffed with a losing hand and Livi raised the stakes and called her on it. She abruptly got up to leave.

"I'm warning you, Livia, stay away from House!" Cuddy said as she hurriedly walked out of the cafeteria. She was aware of the appreciative stares she received as she hurried out of the cafeteria. Normally, these stares would have pleased her, but not today. What had she done? Livia would go straight to D'Antonio and then to House. Then it was really over. House could conceivably leave PPTH.

The board as a whole couldn't stand House and the way he practiced medicine, but they would have her head on a silver platter if House quit, in spite of all the problems he managed to cause the hospital. He still was probably the best at what he did and was truly an asset to PPTH.

Ironically, St. Sebastian's had been after him off and on for five years, even with all the trouble he had been having. He had even interviewed here shortly before his breakdown, but Cuddy had been able to convince him to stay at PPTH. Shortly thereafter, he had his breakdown which she and Wilson should have seen coming. They ignored all the signs, especially her, since she had started seeing Lucas.

Cuddy called Lucas again to meet with him at a coffee shop near his apartment. She needed dirt on Livia and she needed it now! Lucas had already started looking into Livi's life and there was nothing anyone could use on her. She didn't even have a traffic ticket! Cuddy was wasting her time and money , but she was on a mission. She wanted Lucas to dig up anything he could find on her and she wanted to know every phone call Livi had made since she'd been in Princeton, every email she sent, and she wanted surveillance done as well.

Lucas just stared at her. Then he took her hands in his. "Lisa, I started checking on Livia Bonofiglio right after you called. There's nothing in her life that you can use. She hasn't called House and he hasn't called her. Just end this now, and you don't owe me a thing." Lucas pleaded with her. He was still in love with her and would take her back in a heartbeat if that's what she wanted. Cuddy wouldn't take "No" for an answer. Reluctantly, he agreed to continue investigating and she went home to Rachel. House hadn't called, but she hadn't expected him to.

Although Livi was tempted, she wouldn't call Greg and tell him what happened. She wasn't in junior high school. She was a grown woman who had just landed a job as Chief of Orthopedic Medicine in a well-respected hospital. Livi had a hunch that Cuddy would go to Wilson with what she had just done and Greg would find out anyway because Wilson really was a gossip.

When she had bumped into Wilson last week and he told her about Greg and Cuddy, she really meant it when she told Wilson that she hoped it would work out for him. Livi wanted Greg to be happy and get better, but Cuddy wasn't helping him do either.

Livi had parked her car outside of the ER entrance last night. Apparently it had rained pretty hard sometime during the night. While yesterday was warm and sunny, it was dry. Now it was warm and extremely humid. Humidity always made Livi wilt, and sometimes actually made her sick, even as a little girl. She would spend most of her time either in the pool in her grandparent's back yard or in the air conditioned house. The house Livi bought here in Princeton had a large, fenced in yard with an in ground pool, but once the humidity hit her, all thoughts of swimming left her head. She was getting a little nauseated.

As Livi drove out of the parking lot, she paid no attention to the man on the motorcycle who slowly drove by her, admiring her car. It was House. He didn't see Livi's red hair until he was well past her. When he realized the hot car belonged to his hot chick, he quickly did a U-turn in the parking lot so he could follow her home.

He got near the parking lot exit in time to see Livi take a right. He timed his exit so he would be a half a block behind her and she hopefully wouldn't notice him right away. This was working out better than he had hoped. He had just wanted to buy her breakfast, but now he would find out where she lived sooner than he planned.

As Livi drove home, she began to get pissed off again.

"How dare she threaten me!" she said to herself as she got closer to her new house. "She's lucky I just didn't go ahead and punch her lights out!" By this time, Livi was home and ready to get in the shower.

Before she took her shower, she made herself some peanut butter toast. She hadn't eaten since dinner last night and it was almost eleven now. She stayed in the shower a long time, letting the spray wash some of the tiredness and tension from her body while she washed her hair. When she was through, she wrapped herself in a towel and started towel-drying her hair.

Completely exhausted, she looked at the clock. Eleven forty five. She stumbled over to her bed and pulled the covers down. "Stay away from Greg? I don't have to. He'll find out about this eventually, and that will be the final nail in your coffin. You screwed yourself, lady." Livi said to herself as fell into an exhausted, dreamless sleep. Livi didn't know House had followed her.

It ended on the Fourth of July because something new was about to start the day after.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: There will be a lot of mental reminiscing going on in Greg and Livi's minds only to establish the back story of their relationship.

Also, anything resembling the sex scenes in the House premier and this chapter are totally coincidental. I started this chapter in the middle of August. Work has been insane, and I'm just finishing up now.

_**CHAPTER TWO**_

House stayed a half block behind Livi all the way to her house. As she pulled her car into the driveway of 1632 Bouquet street, she still didn't realize she had been followed. House didn't get any closer, checking out her house as best as he could from that distance.

"Nice." he said to himself, even though he wasn't a suburbs kind of guy.

Livi had bought a one story, four bedroom ranch house with a garage that looked big enough to hold three vehicles. The yard was beautifully landscaped, with all the rhododendron bushes that ringed the house trimmed to just below window level, and House noticed the house had a security system. Now he would only worry slightly less about her living alone. Then he closed his eyes and chuckled to himself. She would go nuts with Christmas lights outside. He'd deal with it.

House could see the big fenced in backyard from his vantage point and correctly guessed there was a pool there. Actually, as far as he could tell, it looked like there were maybe three or four other houses in the neighborhood had pools and there were a lot of kids running around.

"Big deal." House thought to himself. In spite of his reputation as a first-class grouch, House actually liked kids. He had always doubted his parenting abilities, so he just never had any. Knowing Livi, if she had made friends with her neighbors since she moved in, the kids would swarm on her house to get her to come and play with them, and she wouldn't think twice about it. It looked like a neighborhood where people looked out for each other. He could handle this if everything worked out with Livi.

House watched until Livi got out of her car, closed the garage door and disappeared from view. Satisfied that she was safely home, he put his helmet on and headed home himself, not realizing Lucas had tailed him.

The coffee shop meeting Lucas had with Cuddy was brief and to the point, and he had hurried out to see if he could spot Livi's red Mustang anywhere as he slowly drove the streets between St. Sebastian's and her house. By sheer chance, he spotted House on his bike and followed him at a distance, hoping he was following Livi.

Poor Lucas. He knew this investigation was a waste of time. When his quick, initial investigation of Livi turned up nothing but basic information this morning, he knew no matter how far he dug, there would be nothing there for Lisa to use. The woman was clean as could be. The worst thing that had happened to her was losing both her parents when she was six. Besides, if Lisa had told him the entire truth about what happened at the picnic, House had been sorry about their relationship from the second it started.

Lisa's bossiness and need to be in control was the reason the relationship tanked so quickly. Livi was actually Wilson's guest at the picnic, and Lisa should have been mature enough to handle it. That House decided to break up with her then was coincidental but inevitable. Livi had been in town since January and had not even tried to contact House even though she knew where he lived and worked. That puzzled Lucas and he would try to find out why that was so, but not right this second.

Lucas wasn't an Alpha Dog like House or Lisa. He was more laid back and he could deal with Lisa's bossiness, giving the appearance that she was the one who "wore the pants" in their relationship. To all outward appearances, Lucas was the bumbling boyfriend of a powerful woman with a prestigious job and did as he was told. In reality, he was the one who unobtrusively controlled her, and she never realized it.

Lisa Cuddy struck like a hammer, and it suited him to play the goofy, inept young suitor. It worked until Lisa decided that she was in love with House. House would have eventually left her, but it might have been on more civil terms if Livi hadn't shown up. It was all about timing. Lucas followed House until he saw that he was headed home.

Lucas knew House well enough to know that for the time being, he was satisfied that he knew where Livi's house was, so Lucas could go home and get a few hours of sleep. House wouldn't move from his apartment for the rest of the day. After dark, Lucas took up surveillance on Livi's house just like Lisa had asked him to do. She was paying him to watch her every move.

It was a wasted night. Livi wouldn't budge from her house either, and she didn't make any phone calls. Lucas had found out who her Internet carrier was and hacked into their server. She wasn't online emailing or Instant Messaging House, either.

Livi had fallen asleep almost instantly after her shower. She had no clue that Greg had followed her home or that Cuddy had hired a private detective to tail her every move. She woke up around five to her stomach growling.

Still tired, she wandered into her kitchen to make herself dinner. Hopefully, she wouldn't have a hard time going back to sleep later because she slept all day.

Livi looked in her refrigerator trying to decide what to eat. She was a good cook, but she hated cooking for just herself. Her grandmother had taught her how to cook very well, but the problem was Italians have trouble cooking on a small scale. Livi and every other Italian woman on the planet had trouble cooking for less than five people. Since she had been in Princeton, she had found herself bringing tons of leftovers to work and feeding her staff lunch whenever she cooked.

Back in Pittsburgh, leftovers were rarely a problem. Everyone of her relatives still lived in the Bloomfield section of Pittsburgh or a ten minute drive away. Someone was always dropping by, friend or relative, and in typical Italian fashion, you were always fed something when you stopped for a visit, family or not!

Livi settled for a Stouffer's microwave meatloaf dinner. She put it on a tray with a glass of lemonade and went into the den to watch some TV. Settling down to watch an NCIS rerun, she looked at her dinner and remembered that meatloaf was one of Greg's favorites. Thinking about Greg made her think about the picnic yesterday.

"Why had Greg been "lusting" after Lisa Cuddy all these years?" Livi wondered to herself.

What Livi saw yesterday was not a successful career woman, one of the very few women deans of medicine in the entire country. She saw a very attractive but incredibly insecure woman. No, wait, take that back. She saw an insecure bitch and proof of what a relationship based on sexual attraction and nothing else was like.

Greg had been sexually attracted to Cuddy all these years, and finally realized that they could never have anything lasting. Livi doubted the sex was any good after the buzz of finally winning the prize wore off for Greg.

And poor Greg. Livi knew Wilson hadn't told her all the details that led up to Greg's breakdown (There really was a lot Livi didn't know but would soon find out!), but it was obvious he was still having issues. He had a lost look about him. She had to do something, but what? The Greg House she saw yesterday wasn't the one she grew up with. He had a haunted, lost look in his eyes. Livi did see a glimpse of the old Greg when he tried to embarrass her by mentioning Sanibel Island and inviting her to lunch, but for the most part, he was just a shadow of the man she still loved and always would.

Over the years, Livi had occasionally wondered why they hadn't gotten married. They knew each other so well, it bordered on scarey. On the outside, it seemed that they had nothing more than a sexual attraction to each other, but there was more.

Livi had seen first-hand how Colonel House treated his son, and whenever it was feasible, she would get Greg to come to her grandparents until John House cooled off. They connected on all levels, but Greg never showed any desire to have a permanent relationship with her.

Livi blamed a lot of Greg's problems on John House and the way he raised Greg. She had often wondered why Blythe had never divorced the Colonel and took Greg away, giving him a chance to be "normal", whatever that was.

Just because she and Greg only got together when one of them (usually him) needed some type of comforting didn't mean that Livi sat around waiting for Greg's next call. She dated a lot, but the few relationships that had serious potential quickly cooled once they knew she couldn't have children. Whether it was deliberate or a stupid knee jerk reaction, she was made to feel like she was damaged goods because she couldn't have children, and the relationship soon ended.

It hurt a lot at first, but she buried the hurt of being thought of as "damaged goods" the same way she buried the hurt of not being able to have children. Livi should have tried to talk those feelings out instead of burying the pain, but what was the point? Control had been taken from her and she couldn't have children. That was that. Her uterus couldn't be put back. She had no choice but to deal with it. She had looked into adoption, but that was a long, tedious process that she hadn't had any luck with so far. The adoption agencies had approved her, but had a tendency to give a child to a two-parent family before a single mother.

Slowly, she began limiting her socializing to group activities with co-workers and family or non-committal relationships. That probably wasn't a good idea either, but she wasn't depressed and her life was full.

Livi knew she had made a mistake had been in not trying to have a baby, married or not, before her endometriosis got so severe she had to have surgery. First, she wanted to get through the craziness of her residency and she worked all kinds of crazy shifts to complete her requirements. She should have known better, but she thought there would still be time to try once that was all out of the way.

Unfortunately, Livi ran out of time. She had won one of the three fellowship spots at UPMC's Sports Medicine Center and was such a stand out, they kept her on staff when it was over. Livi was thirty now. She had been on the Pill since she was a teenager, but it wasn't helping her any longer. Neither were the D&C's she had been having almost twice a year. The D&C's had been keeping fibroids at a minimum, but not anymore.

In spite of the severity of her condition, the only thing that went right for Livi was sex. She never had any pain and she enjoyed it immensely. She reluctantly agreed with her doctor that it was time for surgery, so they scheduled it for a time when Livi would be able to stay home and recuperate for six weeks.

Dr. Sorenson filled out the papers for a short-term disability leave for Livi and forwarded them HR. She also gave Livi's boss a call and explained the what was going on to him and suggested she take a few days off now to adjust to the situation.

Devastated and not thinking clearly, Livi stopped taking the pill in the middle of her cycle. Why bother with it anymore? It wasn't helping her and now she was going to permanently lose her chance at having a baby sooner than she thought.

She called Greg to tell him what was going on, and he got her a ticket on the first flight to Philly and she stayed with him for a week. Two doctors who knew better gave no thought at all to using birth control one night because they were too drunk to think about it, and Livi got pregnant.

Before she had a chance to tell Greg, she had a miscarriage, bleeding so severely that her doctor ending up doing the hysterectomy right away instead of when it was scheduled. Dr. Sorenson left Livi's ovaries in because they weren't diseased and there no were fibroids on them. No point in going through menopause at the age of thirty.

Livi had lost a lot of blood and her doctor kept her in the hospital for ten days. When she was well enough, she called Greg to tell him what had happened because he had promised her he would come to Pittsburgh for awhile after her surgery.

Surprisingly, hearing Livi had lost their baby hurt him more than he could have imagined, but Greg brushed it off. He came to stay with her for two weeks and said everything Livi needed to hear and she believed him, which had been his goal. He was surprised that he had been able to comfort her because he didn't believe his own words.

Greg had a brass set on him, and the first thing he did was visit Livi's doctor and review her file for himself. It was highly unethical, but Dr. Sorenson let Greg see the file anyway. Somehow, she sensed that Greg was in love with her patient, although he didn't seem to realize it, and he was making sure everything had been done to spare Livi needing a hysterectomy. Greg's reputation had preceded him to Pittsburgh.

In Dr. Sorenson's conference room, Greg poured over Livi's entire file, going back to when she still lived in Quantico and the base doctors were treating her right up until the present. He read and re-read the file, obsessing over every period and comma, and even made his own notes in the margins and he stared at the ultrasounds that had been done, especially the ones when Livi started to lose the baby. He saw the tiny beginnings of what would have been his child.

Finally, Greg was satisfied beyond any doubt that medically, everything possible had been done to avoid a hysterectomy and he wouldn't have treated Livi any differently, that the surgery was necessary to save her life. Even though his logical mind told him surgery had been necessary, that it was going to happen one way or another, Greg blamed himself for the timing. He was just as drunk and horny as Livi was, but he should have protected her. He felt like he had let her down in some way, but neither one of them had counted on a pregnancy or miscarriage.

He wasn't sure about his ability to help raise his own child anyway, so he tried to convince himself that losing the baby was the best for all concerned. He never voiced those thoughts to Livi because he wasn't able to convince himself, startled to realize he had wanted a baby with her. Livi wasn't the only one who dealt with things by trying to ignore them when she couldn't find a logical answer, but in the long run, she handled it better.

Livi recovered quickly, Greg went back to Princeton and they went on with their lives. Once Livi had gotten over the shock that she had actually gotten pregnant and almost immediately lost the only chance she might have had to have her own child, she threw herself into to her career (developing her own medical reputation as well), and being a surrogate mother to her cousin's kids as well as half the kids in the neighborhood.

It wasn't the real deal, but Livi loved them as much as she would have loved her own children. It was a poor substitute because she lived alone now. Her grandfather had died peacefully in his sleep like his wife had, a year after Livi started her residency at UPMC.

Before she had started her junior under grad year at Pitt, Livi had finally been able to convince her grandfather sell his house in Quantico and move back to Bloomfield. He and Livi had moved back into his parent's old home. The outside was immaculate, so they completely renovated and restored the interior, knocking down walls on the first floor to make the living room, kitchen and dining room larger and had a pool installed.

They made the six incredibly small bedrooms upstairs into three larger ones and had all the plumbing redone, and turned the basement into a fully furnished family room. Whole house air conditioning was installed and the attic space was renovated into a sitting room for Livi so she could study in peace and quiet. It was one of the few houses in the city with an attached garage. The house had been left to her, and Livi gladly hosted most family holidays at her house. Being hostess to all filled some of the emptiness she felt inside.

Around nine, Livi's eyes started to droop. She took her tray back to the kitchen, double-checked her doors and alarm system went back to bed. She decided she was going to try and help Greg, at least with his pain, but he had to come to her first. As much as she loved a good fight, she was not going anywhere near Greg because of Cuddy since she obviously wasn't accepting the fact that Greg broke it off with her. The ball was in his court now.

Livi had probably added more than enough fuel to the fire by deliberately kissing Greg goodnight on the lips, but what the hell! Even a quick kiss like that from Greg was enough to send a shiver down her spine! Other than Greg, she couldn't remember anyone else giving her that same shiver!

Since Cuddy was his boss as well, Livi didn't want to make trouble for him at work and possibly get him fired. She wasn't going to make life easy for Greg now, especially after a public break up.

Knowing about her relationship with Greg, Dr. D'Antonio had told her they had been trying to woo him away from PPTH periodically for the past five years. Livi was surprised to hear that. Although they had only been in contact infrequently for the past few years, it was unlike Greg to crow and brag about any job offer he got, even to her, because other than Blythe, Livi was the only other person on the planet who would be truly happy for him.

Dr. D'Antonio was hard to impress, but even with all of Greg's problems, he had made a lasting impression on him after he had referred a couple of difficult cases to him and periodically kept trying to get him to work at St. Sebastian's.

Livi knew Wilson well enough to know that by tomorrow morning, Greg would know what kind of car she drove if he hadn't blabbed it already, and he would probably start following her home, but for once, Livi under estimated Greg. She didn't know that he didn't wait for Wilson to give him that little tidbit of information, and had gotten up early (for him) to take her to breakfast this morning.

Livi got in bed and turned her TV on, not really watching. Greg kept intruding into her thoughts. Judging by the look on his face and how heavily he leaned on his cane when he was stretching his leg during the fireworks, the Ibuprofen he kept swallowing yesterday was not helping him at all, and Livi suspected that there was more going on there than he would admit to.

Whose brilliant idea was it to give him Ibuprofen? With the way he was tossing it down, he was risking an ulcer or kidney damage, especially when combined with alcohol. At the very least, he needed some type of muscle relaxant and maybe a prescription strength, non-narcotic pain killer to at least take the edge off. It was hard to decide a course of treatment without running tests and seeing his medical file.

Just the thought of all the agony Greg was in now irritated Livi to no end and without wanting to, her mind wandered back to when Stacey left Greg and she found out about the infarction.

When Livi had found out that Greg and Stacey had moved in together, she was happy for him. Livi had met Stacey once, at Greg's insistence, and she didn't really care for her. Greg seemed to want her approval, not realizing how much Livi was hurting. He appeared to be happy, and that's what Livi wanted for him, so she wished them well, hiding the pain of losing Greg so well that he never noticed.

She went back to her job in Pittsburgh and her every day life, not looking back, but regretting she hadn't done more to make Greg love her enough to ask her to move in with him or marry him.

"Maybe he thinks I'm damaged goods now, like everyone else has." she told herself. "I couldn't even have his baby."

She buried that pain, too. That wasn't any better than her burying her pain of not having children, but she couldn't come up with a logical way to deal with it. She had been known to hit the bottle now and again, especially when she was with Greg, but she just couldn't picture herself drowning her sorrows and becoming an alcoholic.

Livi had been raised to try and solve her problems on her own and to learn to live with it if things didn't work out the way she expected them to, but what good would it do to talk to Greg now? It was too late. Since she had been taught to work her own problems out, it was natural for her not to believe in therapy or medicating herself into oblivion, even if she was watching the man she had been in love with since she was ten years old declare his love for someone else.

One night, about five years after Stacey had moved in with Greg, Livi was working late at the hospital, finishing up her paper work. It was early spring, and she was leaving for a three week vacation in Florida the next afternoon and she wanted everything in order and out of the way when she came back. On her way out of the hospital, she got a 911 page, and she recognized the number that went along with it.

Frowning, she hurried back to her office to call Greg. He picked up the phone on the first ring and started babbling away about how Stacey had left him. He sounded pretty drunk, so Livi patiently waited for him to calm down a little.

Finally, he got him calm enough to talk coherently and she asked him what was wrong. The whole story spilled out, including the part about Stacey moving out of Greg's apartment and Princeton as well. Greg had had an infarction in his right leg almost a year earlier which had gone undiagnosed for four days. Amputation was suggested because the delay in diagnosing it had caused muscle death, but he insisted the clot be removed in spite of the risks involved in restoring the blood flow in his leg.

The procedure was successful, clearing the clot, but the pain had gotten much worse, even with morphine. He had a heart attack. Once he had been stabilized, the pain was more excruciating than ever. He asked to be put in a coma to get through the worst of it. He was already maxed out on his morphine, and it was entirely possible that the pain itself could kill him.

Stacey had still been trying to talk him into amputation, and he adamantly kept refusing. He kept insisting on the medically induced coma, sleeping through the worst of the pain. Finally giving in, Cuddy did that and as soon as Greg was out, Stacey questioned her about another procedure she had previously mentioned, a sort of middle ground that would allow Greg to keep his leg and possibly live pain free.

Stacey authorized the surgery because she was Greg's medical proxy, but it didn't go as exactly as planned. Quite a bit of his thigh muscle had been removed, leaving an ugly hole in his leg, along with a lot of nerve damage. The pain levels had barely decreased, but morphine was helping a little now, and the pain eventually leveled off to a point where he was discharged with a prescription for Vicodin and a schedule for physical therapy.

Greg was angry with Stacey for going against his wishes. He refused to do his physical therapy after a certain point and all they did was fight. Basically (and understandably at first), he was throwing his own pity party and taking everything out on her. He felt betrayed.

Stacey stood it for as long as she could, but eventually moved out. Within a year, she had married Mark Warner, but Greg wouldn't find that out until Stacey showed up at PPTH several years after that, begging Greg to save her husband's life. That little episode led Greg to attempt to break Stacey's marriage up so she would come back to him, but in the end, he realized he couldn't give her what she wanted and told her to go back to Mark.

Livi didn't need to hear anymore. Greg needed help.

Greg, I'll be there sometime tomorrow. Everything will be fine."

After a few seconds of silence where all Livi could hear was Greg breathing, he finally said, "Thanks, baby. I'll get Wilson to pick you up up at the airport."

"Greg, I don't know what flight I'll be able to get on. I'll rent a car at the airport. I don't need Wilson on stand by. I'll be there tomorrow. Have you gone back to work?" Livi questioned.

"Yeah, baby. I'm usually home by five unless I have a case." Greg sounded more coherent now.

"All right. If I get there before five, I'll find the super and have him let me in, okay? Just remember to tell him it's okay for me to be in your apartment. Don't forget."

"Okay, Liv, I'll tell him." Greg replied slowly. "Thank you, baby."

"It's all right, Greg, I'll be there as soon as I can." Livi said. She hung up the phone and hurried home. The first thing she did was call the airline and cancel her tickets for Florida and get tickets for Philly instead. She had just missed the last flight out for the day or she would have headed out now. Knowing she wouldn't get a lot of sleep tonight, she tried to get out first thing in the morning on the business men's flight, but the earliest flight she could get into Philly would land at ten, putting her in Princeton about an hour or so later, depending on traffic. Trying to fly into JFK or Newark was worse. The only flights available at those two airports didn't land until after six. That was too late.

Livi booked a first class ticket into Philly, reserved a car, then called the hotel in Florida to cancel her reservations there. She got hit with a fifty dollar cancellation fee because she cancelled less than twenty four hours before check in, but she didn't care. She re-packed her bag, substituting jeans, t-shirts and some dress pants for the beach wear she had originally packed. She barely got any sleep that night and got up at four. She decided to leave for the airport and maybe get on the first flight if there were any cancellations. She didn't get that lucky.

Once she got to the airport, she called her boss and one of her aunts and told them about her change in plans and where she could be reached if need be.

When her plane landed in Philly, Livi claimed her suitcase and found the car rental counter. Traffic was picking up a little, but she made Princeton in little less than an hour because she drove like the devil was chasing her whenever she could. When she got to Greg's apartment, she saw his car parked outside the building. Livi didn't know what to make of that, considering the state Greg was in last night. There was no way to be sure until she got in his apartment.

"Maybe he called off to wait for me." Livi said to herself as she tried to think positively as she pulled into an empty parking space and got her luggage out of the car. "I won't have to go look for the super."

She knocked on the door. No answer.

"Greg, it's Livi. Are you all right? Come on, open the door. Let me in." Livi said. The silence on the other side of the door was deafening and making Livi nervous. It was almost impossible to make her nervous.

Greg had gone into mule mode and wouldn't answer the door for Livi. When he woke up that morning with a hangover, he vaguely recalled last night's phone call and Livi's promise to be here today. Until he heard her knock on the door, he had been unrealistically hoping he had imagined the entire conversation because of the bourbon he had been drinking.

His stubbornness wouldn't let him pick up the phone that morning to try and stop her before she left Pittsburgh to tell her it was all a false alarm, that he was drunk when he called her (as if she didn't know!). A phone call would have been pointless because she was probably on a plane already, and he really didn't want believe she would come, that she would get Wilson over here to see what was wrong. Wilson had yet to show up, so Livi wasn't delegating responsibility to anyone but herself. She wouldn't let him down if she could help it.

Livi began pounding the door with her fist because he wouldn't answer her.

"Greg House, open this door now!" she yelled loudly.

"Go home, Livi! This was a mistake!" Greg bellowed from inside his apartment as he swallowed a Vicodin.

Livi just stared at the door for a few seconds, stunned at what she had just heard. She couldn't believe her ears. Then she lost it.

"Go home?" Livi hollered back at him."Go home? I don't think so, Skippy. I cancelled my vacation for you, you son of a bitch! Open this damn door now!" she yelled as she kept pounding on the door.

Last night, House had actually remembered to tell the super about Livi coming to Princeton, and he had been hanging around within earshot of House's door waiting for Livi, even though he knew House hadn't gone to work. He knew House could be even more stubborn than a jackass. As soon as he heard a female voice cussing a blue streak and pounding on House's door, he hurried right over.

Livi hadn't heard him come up behind her and jumped when he put his hand on her shoulder. House was right. She was beautiful. And royally pissed off.

"Excuse me miss, can I help you?" Bill asked Livi in as calm a voice as he could. He considered House a buddy, even if House didn't always reciprocate (he was part of House's poker playing posse). He and his wife had tried to keep an eye out for him ever since his girlfriend had moved out, sometimes inviting him for dinner if he was available.

House's behavior troubled him and he was glad he was able to get a friend to help out, even for a short while. The only females Bill had seen visiting House now were ones he picked up in a bar or of the type you got from an escort service. He was obviously using a high priced service, but it was a shame a guy like House had to resort to that for female companionship.

"Are you the super?" Livi asked, then without waiting for an answer, she went on, "That jackass in there called me last night saying he need help and now he won't let me in!" Livi fumed.

The super laughed. "Miss, ah, I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name?" Bill Shelton the superintendent said as he extended his hand to her.

"I didn't throw it!" Livi snapped back at Bill.

Wisely, Bill stifled his laughter. "This one's a handful and then some!" he thought to himself as he took in the whole package that was Livi. Livi was borderline voluptuous and hot as hell. She was of medium height, long legs encased in a perfectly fitted pair of jeans. She was wearing a light weight purple sweater that clung to every curve and a simple black blazer. Her long, curly coppery brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and stuffed into a baseball cap, midnight blue eyes snapping with anger. Even with no make up, she turned heads. A pair of very comfortable looking Reebocks were on her feet.

"It's Livia Bonofiglio. Dr. Bonofiglio." Livi grumbled loudly as she remembered her manners and held her hand out, not the least bit embarrassed that a stranger had overheard her cuss Greg out.

"If you're the super, will you please let me in? And if you're not, please tell me where the hell he is so I can get in there and see if that jackass is all right!" This time, Bill chuckled.

"Well, doctor, as it happens, I'm the building super, and Dr. House did tell me you would be coming today and to let you in if he wasn't home. I'll let you in anyway, even though we know he's home." Bill reached into his pocket for his master key and unlocked the door. Livi charged right through the door, leaving Bill to bring her suitcase in.

Greg was still in his pajamas. When he woke up hung over, he stumbled into the shower, and when he was through, he decided not to go to work, even though he knew Livi was probably on her way. He just put on clean pajama pants and a t-shirt and decided not to answer the door when she showed up.

He didn't have a case, so why go to work? Cuddy would only make him work in the clinic (he hated clinic even then). When Livi had started pounding on his door, he mentally kicked himself, especially when he heard she cancelled her vacation.

He hadn't meant for her to cancel her vacation plans because of him. Angry with himself, he limped down the hall to his bedroom, hoping she would go away. He had forgotten he had asked Bill to open the door if he wasn't home when Livi got here.

The pounding had stopped, so Greg thought it was safe to go back out and watch TV. He had left his Vicodin out there anyway and he wanted another one. His timing was very bad. He was walking into a mine field that sometimes went by the name of Livia Bonofiglio.

He had barely swallowed the second Vicodin when Livi bolted through the door. Belatedly, Greg remembered he asked Bill to let Livi in if he wasn't home. He must have been hanging around outside the door waiting, guessing correctly that he wouldn't voluntarily it for her.

Livi dropped her purse and carry on bag on the floor and marched straight over to Greg. She had her hands on her hips and was glaring at him like she would like to strangle him.

Bill stayed long enough to put Livi's suitcase by the piano and quickly left because he correctly guessed the redhead was going to blow her stack at House and he didn't want to be a witness, although it had the potential to be quite funny. Wait until he told his wife! This time, House deserved getting reamed out.

Still very angry that Greg had nerve enough to tell her to go away, especially after she had cancelled her vacation to come here, Livi didn't bother with any niceties. She tossed her blazer on a chair, and as soon as she heard Bill close the door behind him, she gave Greg's pajama bottoms a yank and knelt down so she could examine his leg.

"Livi, what the hell are you doing! If you want sex, just ask." was all Greg could say as she continued her examination. He didn't want her to see the damage to his leg, but the pleasant numbness from the Vicodin was beginning to spread throughout his body and he didn't resist.

Livi glared up at him. "What the hell does it look like I'm doing, you jackass? Giving you a blow job? I'm examining you. I thought you went to medical school. Did you flunk Exam 101, genius?"

Livi was madder than a nest of disturbed hornets and Greg didn't try to calm her down. It would be a waste of time anyway. The second Vicodin he swallowed just as Livi came charging into his apartment was working full force with the first one, and her hands were soft gentle on his leg even though she was throughly pissed off.

Livi's eyes widened slightly at the extent of the damage done to Greg, but she maintained a professional attitude through her shock and anger. When she was finished, she got ever more pissed than she was when she bolted into the apartment.

"Who the hell did this to you Greg?" she demanded as she stood up. "I know this isn't what you wanted!" She was pacing the living room in his apartment furiously, still cussing a blue streak.

Greg pulled his pajamas back up and limped over to the couch and sat down. "Nice bedside manner you have there, Dr. Bonofiglio." he said in response.

"Bite me!" she snapped back.

Thanks to the Vicodin, Greg just grinned stupidly at her. Although he wouldn't admit it yet, he was already addicted to it. He was popping more and more pills, sometimes chasing them with bourbon, but he hadn't developed a tolerance to them yet. They were still relieving his pain somewhat. He liked being stoned, and the best part was it was all legal. He could get a scrip from Wilson anytime he wanted one.

Wilson felt guilty because he hadn't been around when he had the infarction and therefore couldn't convince Stacey to do things his way, so whenever House asked, he wrote the prescription, although it was always accompanied by a lecture about him taking too much and so forth. The Vicodin let Greg function like the rest of the world and he was positive he could quit anytime he wanted to.

"Livi, this was all done against my wishes. I had asked to be put in a coma until the worst of the pain was over, and while I was in a medically induced coma, Cuddy suggested this surgery. Stacey had my medical proxy and she signed the papers." Greg managed to get out before Livi started ranting again.

"You're an idiot, you know that!" Livi snapped back. "Why didn't you make me your medical proxy or get me or someone from my hospital out here for a consult? This is what we do! We could have been here in three hours!" Before Greg had a chance to answer, she jumped right back in. "Don't give me that crap about how you loved and trusted each other! Where the hell was Wilson?"

"He was out of town and couldn't get back here until it was too late. Livi, she claimed she was afraid I would die." Greg mumbled. He knew Livi was right.

"She loved you and were afraid you would die my ass!" Livi said as she continued pacing his living room "If that was the case, where the hell is she now? Why didn't she stick this out with you? All she was trying to do was make sure she could keep you around for her sake. She didn't do it for you! I know you're capable of driving everyone away from you, but if she loved you, she'd be here now instead of me! When the going got tough, she got going, didn't she?"

"Livi, it wasn't like that." Greg said, although she didn't know how close she was to the truth. He still had feelings for Stacey, but he now he knew he had never been in love with her. He had convinced himself that he was in love with her because he wanted that in his life. Their relationship was already unraveling at the time of his infarction.

Stacey socialized a lot for her career and wanted Greg to join her. That just wasn't his thing, and most of the people she wanted him to meet were real morons as far as he was concerned. He just wasn't interested in her career anymore. His solution was to be as big an ass as he possibly could when Stacey managed to drag him someplace, and eventually she got the hint and stopped asking, but it didn't stop the fighting, and their love life suffered as well.

With a furious Livi in front of him, he now realized how much it must have hurt her when he insisted that she meet Stacey. He knew Livi had always been in love with him, even when she was a little girl, but it didn't really register how much pain he had caused her the time because he was riding the Stacey high. Now Greg finally admitted to himself how much Livi must love him, and he still didn't know what he had done for her to love him and rearrange her life every time he needed it.

Regardless of what her plans were, Livi had always changed them for Greg every time he needed her, no questions asked, and never asked him for anything in return. It was natural for her to give comfort to him. He had only done that for her once, but she had only needed him like that once. He chased Stacey away with his behavior in general and his anger over what she had done when he had the infarction. He could never chase Livi away, at least for very long, no matter what he did. She was here now, wasn't she? Beside the persistent pain in his leg, Livi was the only constant in his miserable life.

He now realized that he had always been in love with Livi, but he didn't feel like he deserved her or her love, especially now. He had practically rubbed her nose in his relationship with Stacey, and yet here she was, responding to a drunken phone call that everyone else would have ignored.

She loved him, she was beautiful, smart, successful and never took his crap. She threw it right back at him. He pushed her away, but not with blunt force like he did with everyone else. He could never cut that tie he had with her and he didn't want to. They had known each other too long. She knew him but never judged him. Why was he such an ass to her?

"Greg, I've assisted with this type of surgery before. Why haven't you sued the butcher that did this to you? They should lose their license! They tried to cover their ass, but they took too much muscle and did a lot of unnecessary nerve damage. If you don't do your PT, the pain will get worse. Those pills you're popping won't help you anymore. You'll be addicted. Don't do that, please!"

Livi's anger had finally given away to tears and she stood in the middle of the living room, crying like a little girl. That broke Greg's heart and he got off the couch and slowly limped over to her.

He didn't answer her because he knew everything she said was true. He just put his arms around her. He had only seen her cry like this once before, after her grandmother died. Greg's mind went back in time.

Livi and her grandfather had gone to do grocery shopping and other errands while Rosa cleaned the house. Suddenly tired, she decided to go upstairs and take a nap. Rosa never woke up from that nap. Livi had run upstairs looking for Rosa and screamed when she found her. Tony flew up the stairs and found Livi frozen in the doorway and Rosa lying peacefully on the bed. One look at his wife told Tony they were too late.

An autopsy had been performed, but nothing was found. Rosa's heart just stopped beating. Tony was beating himself up because he was convinced if he had put the shopping trip off until a later time, he could have saved her, even though his logical mind told him no one would have been able to save Rosa.

Livi was heartbroken. She had lost a mother twice now. In all the upheaval and sadness death causes, Tony decided to send Livi to live with one of her uncles in Pittsburgh after the funeral. The entire family lived in or near Bloomfield. She would have an extensive support system there. Livi was refusing to go. She didn't want to be away from the man who helped raise her.

Greg was eighteen that summer and was getting ready to go off to college. He and Livi were sitting on the back porch of her grandfather's house. Then and now, Greg didn't know how to handle her tears. Livi hadn't been able to stop crying for more than ten minutes since she found her grandmother.

"Livi, your grandfather thinks it's the best thing for you to go to Pittsburgh now. He still loves you, but he doesn't want you to sacrifice yourself for him. He'll be fine here. My mom's just across the street. She can keep an eye out for him."

For someone who could speak so eloquently off the cuff and argue rationally and logically about pretty much any subject you could think of, those were the only words Greg could come up with and he thought they were pretty lame at best.

Livi had been sitting on the ground at Greg's feet. She turned those eyes on him. "You don't understand and neither does he! I don't want to leave all my friends and I can't leave him alone! He needs me! I need him!"

"Livi, he can take care of himself, and you can make new friends. What are you going to do when you go to college? He'll be alone then. He's only thinking of you." was all Greg could think to say. Right now, all he wanted to do was kiss her, and he was having trouble processing that feeling and why he had it.

Still crying and nearly hysterical, she jumped to her feet and tried to run away from Greg. "I won't go to Pittsburgh!" she cried. "I'll run away!" she said as she jumped to her feet.

Greg quickly got up and grabbed her and held her against his chest. She struggled with all her might, but she was no match for Greg. Her tears eventually got the better of her and she just went limp against him and put her arms around him while he tried to quiet her.

Greg didn't really know it, but holding Livi and listening to her was what she needed right now. He was just acting on his instincts. Besides, he realized he actually liked holding her, even if she was just about hysterical. He didn't understand that, either.

Blythe House had been watching and listening to the entire scene from inside the house. Good-hearted woman that she was, she came over to help the family with the cooking and cleaning during the three days Rosa was laid out at the funeral home. A memorial service had been held that morning, and there would be another viewing in Pittsburgh before Rosa was laid to rest in the family plot at St. Mary's Cemetery in Bloomfield later in the week.

Tony had planned on leaving his granddaughter there afterward and sending her things to her later. Blythe thought he was making a huge mistake, but said nothing. It wasn't in her nature to interfere.

She waited a few minutes after her son grabbed Livi when she tried to run away, then she went outside. He did as much as he could, now a woman's touch, a mother's touch, was needed.

Blythe knew that deep down somewhere, Greg loved this girl, and it was obvious how Livi felt about him. If it were up to Blythe, she would pick Livi for her daughter-in-law, but the timing was a little off. Once they both finished college, the four-year age difference wouldn't be a big deal. This wasn't the right time. They still needed to explore their feelings for each other. Right now, Livi was jail bait for Greg.

At the sound of the back door opening, Greg nearly jumped out of his skin but didn't let go of Livi. He thought it was his father, who would immediately jump to the wrong conclusion and give him hell. John House didn't care much for Tony Bonofiglio and blamed him for Greg's desire to become a doctor. John wanted his son to follow him into the Marines. Greg had had enough of military life and refused.

When John House refused to pay one penny of Greg's college tuition, Greg told him to stuff it, that he didn't need his money. Greg's grades were more than good enough to get him a full scholarship, including room and board, to Johns Hopkins and a job in the college bookstore. It wasn't the first time John House had overlooked his son's intelligence or his determination to get away from him.

"Mom!" Greg stuttered. "It's not what you think!"

"Greg, dear, how do you know what I think? I know exactly what's going on out here. Livi, what's wrong? " Blythe said kindly. Livi let go of Greg and ran straight into Blythe's arms.

Livi started to get even more upset than she had been. "Please, Mrs. House, talk to Pap Pap!" she managed to say between sobs. "Why does he want to send me away? I don't want to go to Pittsburgh! I want to stay here!" Blythe had led her to the porch swing and sat Livi down next to her, rocking her like a baby.

"Livi, your grandfather only wants what's best for you." Blythe had said softly "He loves you very much, you know that." None of them realized Tony was watching and listening from inside the house.

"I don't want to go to Pittsburgh unless Pap Pap comes with me!" Livi's tears and sobs were breaking Blythe's heart as well as Greg's and her grandfather's. Livi was so worked up, she couldn't catch her breath. She was starting to hyperventilate.

Before Blythe could motion to Greg to get Tony before his granddaughter needed medical attention, Greg got up on his own to do it. He had never seen Livi hysterical before. It wasn't necessary for Greg or Blythe to do anything. Tony couldn't take Livi's tears anymore and came outside in a hurry.

Livi looked at him with her tear-stained face, swollen eyes pleading with him not to send her away. She was having so much trouble trying to breath that she couldn't talk. All she could do was shake her head, trying to tell her grandfather she wouldn't go, but that made her breathing worse. Tony knew he wouldn't last long without his granddaughter. He changed his mind on the spot.

"Livi, you don't have to stay in Pittsburgh unless you want to. I want you to stay here. I need you too, faccia bella." Tony said. Livi looked at her grandfather in disbelief. He changed his mind! She could stay here! She slipped away from Blythe and ran to her grandfather and literally collapsed against him. Tony held her and talked softly to her until she calmed down and her breathing returned to normal. Tony silently mouthed his thanks to Blythe and Greg and took Livi inside and put her to bed.

Blythe looked at her son and said, "Let's go home, Greg. You did a good thing here tonight for Livi. I'm proud of you."

"Mom, I didn't do anything!" Greg was a bit confused.

"Greg, Livi needed you to listen to her tonight and you did. I heard all of your conversation and I think she probably would have run away. She was too upset to realize that her grandfather would have eventually changed his mind about sending her to Pittsburgh."

As he always was, Greg was in awe about his mother's intuition. But one thing always puzzled him. Why hadn't her intuition told her John House was a bastard? Had he been that different when she met him? It would be many years before Greg would find out about his true parentage.


	3. Chapter 3

_**CHAPTER THREE**_

More reminiscing . . . .

Greg's mind came back to the present as he continued stroking the curly red hair until Livi finally stopped crying. He put his hand under her chin and turned her tear stained face up to him. Wordlessly, he leaned down to kiss her, hoping he wouldn't be rejected.

Livi threw her arms around him and responded quickly to his kisses as he slowly caressed her. She slipped her hand inside Greg's pajamas and began stroking him to a full erection. Greg groaned loudly. It had been months since he had sex that he didn't have to pay for or had while he was drunk. Oddly, the Vicodin was not dulling his senses right now.

Greg pulled Livi closer to him and slid his hands under her sweater. Pretty soon, all Livi had on was her bra and panties. The bra was white and lace trimmed and the panties were plain white cotton high cuts, but the simplicity of it all started to send Greg into overdrive. He had gotten used to crotchless panties or thongs and lacy, almost nothing push up bras and mostly wham, bam, thank you, ma'am condom covered sex.

While he was trying to control himself, Livi had pulled his t-shirt off and was frantically kissing him everywhere she could reach. When she got down to his hard on, she only hesitated long enough to pull his pajamas down. He kicked them off to the side as she took him in her mouth. Greg moaned and almost lost it right there.

Livi licked his entire length very slowly, then took all of him in her mouth again, sucking hard, cupping his balls with her right hand, her left gently resting on his mangled thigh. Greg started to pull her away, but it felt so good to get a BJ from someone who actually gave a crap about him, all he did was tangle his fingers in her hair. Then he started rubbing her back and unhooked her bra.

Livi stood up long enough to take the bra off and let Greg rub her breasts for a bit and he slowly worked her panties off. Then she went right back to his BJ. After a few minutes, Greg pulled her to her feet and said, "Bedroom." He led Livi down the hall, his left arm wrapped around her and his cane in his right hand.

The part of him that had been used to having sex as a release wanted to ravage Livi right now, push her down on his bed slide into her right away and unload quickly like he had been doing, but the human part of him that he kept hidden from everyone, the part she always touched, dominated, keeping him gentle.

Supporting most of his weight on his left side, Greg leaned down to kiss Livi, chewing her bottom lip, then fully kissing her, his tongue dancing around hers. As he pushed her down on her back, he slowly moved across her face and down her neck. Livi gasped softly as he took a nipple in his mouth and began alternating between sucking, tonguing and licking her nipples, devoting equal time to both. She moaned softly as he moved his head lower.

When he got to her hysterectomy scar, he was briefly depressed that she had not been able to have a baby before she had to have surgery. He slipped a finger between the soft folds and found his target. As he rubbed her clit, he was rewarded with a very loud moan and a flow of her juices. Livi couldn't take it anymore. She started thrusting up against his hand as he slowly worked two fingers inside her, sucking her clit until it was swollen with her excitement and her juices were all over his face.

"God, Greg, please . . .!" Livi moaned as her voice trailed off and she twisted under Greg's hand. She hadn't had sex for a long time.

"What do you want, Liv?" he whispered wickedly as he looked up at her from his spot between her legs.

Livi just stared at him. She had almost forgotten he liked to tease her, to build up her desire into a mind blowing orgasm. Mission accomplished. He kept up the stroking with his fingers, swirling his tongue around her clit. Livi was pushing against Greg's hand and face, squirming and moaning. Greg knew she was ready.

He began stroking her faster and sucked her clit hard one last time. With another flow of wetness, Livi's orgasm exploded all over Greg's hand and face as she screamed almost loud enough for the neighbors to hear. Greg chuckled silently, wondering when was the last time Livi had sex. Their sex life had always been hot, but Livi wasn't a screamer.

Greg kept up the assault on Livi until she became so sensitive, she twisted away from his hand. He slowly worked his way back up her body, kissing, licking and sucking her body all the way up to her breasts. He devoted a few minutes to each nipple before he worked his way up to her neck.

"Where did that come from, baby?" he growled against her neck.

Livi was starting to purr with satisfaction now, but the comment stopped her.

"Where did what come from?" she asked breathlessly as she reached for his cock to stroke it.

"You were never a screamer, baby" he chuckled against her neck. Borderline angry, she tried to push him away. "When was the last time you had sex?" he asked while gently nipping her neck.

"None of your damn business!" Livi snapped. She tried to wiggle away from him, but he pinned her down.

"That long, huh?" he grinned wickedly as he put his hand back between her legs.

Livi pushed up against his hand again. "Don't stop Greg, please!" Livi moaned, anger quickly forgotten as Greg he went back to sucking her nipples, arousing her again very quickly.

When Greg was satisfied she was ready and wet enough, he got on top of her. Livi grabbed his cock and started to slide it inside her. One more time, Greg almost lost it. God, she was tight! He managed to hold on, just teasing her with his head with short strokes. Livi was squirming under him and she wrapped her legs around him

Slowly, Greg slid all the way in her and began thrusting hard but slow, almost pulling completely out of her with each stroke. He slipped his hand between them and found his target again and rubbed it in a circular motion, causing a fresh flow of wetness around his cock. Livi moaned loudly.

With another flow of her juices, Livi clenched her walls around Greg and met him stroke for stroke as she wrapped her legs tighter around his hips. Greg kept up the pressure on her clit, urging her on over her soft cries of passion.

"Come on, Liv, come for me! Come again, baby!" he muttered against her neck, barely able to control his own orgasm. Livi finally let go with a soft moan, Greg following right behind her. Still inside her, Greg gently rolled over on his side, pulling her with him, holding her against his chest. He nuzzled her neck as their breathing returned to normal and his cock softened and fell out of her. Livi sighed in disappointment. Greg eased himself on his back, wrapping his arms around Livi, softly kissing her forehead. Livi's orgasm had been so intense, she was still shaking with pleasure and just wrapped her hand around Greg's arm.

"I love you, Liv." he whispered as she snuggled closer to him. He had said those words to her before and he now knew he really meant them

Livi was nearly asleep when Greg said those three words. She literally could not speak, so her response was to only to squeeze his arm.

They slept for the rest of the afternoon. Livi woke first to the sound of both her and Greg's stomachs rumbling with hunger. Slowly she craned her neck to look at the clock on the night stand. Five! No wonder she was hungry. She hadn't eaten since this morning! Slow as it was, her slight movement woke Greg.

"What's wrong, Liv?" he mumbled against her hair and pulled her back on his chest. He felt so good that he didn't realize he was hungry yet.

"Greg, it's dinnertime. I'm hungry and so are you!" Livi said with a giggle. "We slept all afternoon!"

Greg's stomach rumbled again an he looked at the clock, too. "I'll order us Chinese, okay baby?' Greg said as he reached for the phone and pushed one of the speed dial buttons. Livi propped herself on Greg's chest.

"Only if you get me some Crab Rangoon." Livi answered. Then she just stared at Greg as he just pressed one of the speed dial buttons.

"You have the Chinese restaurant on speed dial?" she said in astonishment. Greg lightly smacked her butt as he gave the order.

"They'll be here in ten minutes." Greg looked at Livi. "I never thought I'd say this to you, but put some clothes on before the delivery boy gets here. He's a little pervert." he said with a leer on his face, relishing the feel of Livi's breasts against his chest.

"And you're a big pervert!" Livi said with a smile. "Why can't I answer the door like this?" Livi replied mischievously as she looked around the room. Her luggage and her clothes were out in the living room. She spotted Greg's robe on the floor and scrambled over him to get it.

"Hey, where are you going? Don't put that on now!" Greg hollered as he tried to stop her. She was too quick for him.

"My clothes are out in the living room, numb nuts. I can't go out and get them if the delivery boy is on his way and you can't go to the door naked. You'll scar the kid for life! I'll get your pajamas and come right back!" Livi picked up Greg's robe and slipped it on. Greg sighed in disappointment as her beautiful body disappeared from view. She came back with her luggage and his pj's and tossed them at him so they landed on his head. After he pulled his PJ's back on, they headed back to the living room.

Greg had some Coke and beer in his fridge, and got them both something to drink before the food got there and before Livi had a chance to go in the kitchen. He wasn't ready for her to see he didn't have any food around, that he mostly ate out. They ate their dinner on the couch, feeding each other bits of shrimp. Livi cleaned up and they watched TV for a while. Greg was in a channel surfing mood and Livi just curled up against him. They sat in companionable silence until about eleven. Livi had fallen asleep and he gently woke her up. Greg picked up his Vicodin and dry swallowed two while Livi tactfully looked away and said nothing for the time being. They went back to the bedroom for another round of lovemaking. This time, Livi was able to respond to Greg's "I love you" with one of her own. She gently stroked his scruffy face. The last time she had seen him, he was clean shaven, but she liked the scruff a lot, especially when he rubbed her with it.

Livi woke up around five a.m. on her own. She and Greg had remained tangled up in each other all night, and she tried to pry herself loose so she could take a shower and make breakfast. Her movements woke Greg.

"Now what, baby?" he grumbled as she managed to slip away from him.

"Greg, I need a shower and coffee and I want to make you breakfast before you go to work. Just go back to sleep until I'm ready." Livi took some clothes from her suitcase and disappeared into the bathroom. Greg figured he had almost an hour or so before Livi was dressed and finally discovered there was no food in the apartment.

Greg was right. Livi took her time in the shower, washing and drying her hair before she dressed and headed to the kitchen. She was no stranger to this apartment and knew where everything was, or so she thought. She opened the cupboard to get the coffee. It was literally empty! She opened them all, one by one, slamming each one closed in shock as she realized there was not one crumb of food here, not even cereal! She opened the refrigerator. A six pack of beer and Coke, nothing else. Same for the freezer. Only ice. Greg had heard the doors slamming in the kitchen and sat up in bed, bracing himself for another explosion. He had been hoping for a little morning mambo, but quickly gave up on the idea when he heard the racket in his kitchen.

He didn't have long to wait for the explosion. Livi stormed into the bedroom like she had stormed into his apartment yesterday. She stalked right over to the bed, hand on her hips, glaring at him.

"Why the hell is there no food in this apartment? I need coffee and at least a piece of toast! I can't live on air! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Liv, calm down. I usually grab something at the hospital or mooch off of Wilson." Greg said helplessly.

"Don't hand me that crap, Greg House! The last time there was food in this apartment was before Stacey moved out, right? And you're too damn lazy to go grocery shopping for yourself!" she hissed at him as she looked for her purse.

"Where are you going?" Greg asked as he slowly stretched his leg and started to get out of bed. He automatically reached for the Vicodin bottle. Livi noticed the pain on his face and toned it down a little.

"To get breakfast at McDonald's. What do you want? Pancakes?" Livi was stalling now, making sure he was able to stand up.

"Pancakes sound good." Greg replied as he finally stood up. Livi turned on her heel and left the apartment quickly, the look of pain on Greg's face burned into her brain. Greg headed for the shower, and by the time he was through, Livi was back with breakfast. Greg limped out into the kitchen still in his robe and they ate breakfast in silence at the small table in the kitchen. Finally Livi spoke up.

"Greg, why isn't there any food here? I don't understand this at all. What would happen if you got sick?" she wondered.

"Liv, calm down. Wilson always comes in on his white horse to rescue me!" Greg replied as he reached out to run his fingers through her hair. That was a bad choice of words.

"He didn't ride in on his white horse when Stacey authorized that surgery, did he?" Her voice broke on the last word. "You'd better get dressed and go to work." she said quietly as she finished her coffee and started to clean up. Greg took her hand.

"Liv, I'm always late for work. If I go in now, Cuddy will turn to stone!" Greg said, trying to joke Livi out of her sad mood. It worked, but not in the way Greg had hoped. Livi just glared at him.

"Let her turn to stone, then!" she snapped as she went to watch TV.

Greg sighed. He should have known she would react like this. Why the hell did he call her? All he was doing was hurting her. He went back to his bedroom to get ready for work. He took his good old time. He was only going to show up fifteen minutes sooner than he usually did. Only part of Cuddy would turn to stone, hopefully her mouth!

Livi had found an old movie to watch and she was totally absorbed in it. Greg leaned down to give her a soft kiss on her cheek.

"I'll be home around five if I don't catch a case, okay, baby?" he whispered softly against her hair.

That little kiss sent a shiver down Livi's spine, but she didn't show it. "Let me know if you're going to be late then." she said absentmindedly.

Greg kissed her again. "Sure, baby. See you later." He left the apartment.

Ten minutes after Greg left, Livi turned the TV off. She had a lot of work to do today. The apartment was relatively clean, so Greg must have someone coming in. She checked everything. The cleaning supplies were almost gone and there was a mountain of laundry. She grabbed her purse and headed for the local Wal-Mart.

She went up and down aisles, literally buying everything she could think of to stock Greg's kitchen. Then she went over to the housewares section and bought a Food Saver and a crock pot. She didn't even blink when the cashier gave the total. It didn't matter. She was on a mission.

On her way back to the apartment, it started raining and she was happy she found a spot in front of the building. As she started to bring her bags in, Bill Shelton walked by.

"Let me help you with that, Dr. Bonofiglio." he said as he took several bags out of her rental car.

"Call me Livi, please Mr. Shelton." Livi said with a smile.

"Only if you call me Bill." he smiled back.

"Deal." Livi said. "Bill, did you know there's no food in Greg's apartment? Not even cereal?" Livi said with concern in her voice.

"Yes, Livi, I'm afraid I do know that. Ever since his girlfriend moved out, it's been that way. My wife and I invite him over for dinner once in a while, but he seems to live on take out."

"Bill, is there a grocery store near here that delivers?" Livi asked. Somehow, she had to make sure that Greg had food in his apartment whether he liked it or not.

"McCaffrey's two blocks over, Livi. Why" Bill asked.

"Good. I know where that is. I'm going to see if I can set up an account and regular deliveries for him before I go home." Livi replied in a very satisfied tone.

"I think he shops there already, Livi. Before his girlfriend left, I used to see her with bags from there. But you just bought enough food to feed an army! Why are you worried about it?"

"I'm worried because once I leave and this food is gone, he'll go back to eating nothing but take out. I would never forgive myself if I didn't do this for him. I'd go crazy wondering whether there was food in here or not!" Livi replied as they brought the last of the bags into Greg's apartment. Bill's wife Nancy noticed what was going on and walked in to see if she could help.

After Bill introduced his wife to Livi, he ducked out of the apartment as the two women began putting everything away with Livi pumping Nancy as much as she could about Greg's behavior. Nancy spilled everything. She liked Greg, too, and didn't want to see him go on like this. By now, everything was put away except for the meat and things Livi needed to make meatloaf and spaghetti sauce & meatballs.

The two women looked at the cupboards, satisfied. This is what a kitchen should look like.

"Livi, what are you going to do now?" Nancy asked. She had instantly liked Livi and sensed she was in love with the cranky Dr. House.

"I'm going to make spaghetti sauce with meatballs & spareribs, some meatloaf and anything else I can think of. I bought one of these Food Saver things so the food can stay in the freezer for a long time and not get freezer burn. I also saw a pile of laundry that needed to be done."

"Where's the laundry? I'll take care of that for you while you start this cooking marathon, okay?" Nancy had a huge smile on her face. Even if Livi wasn't staying in Princeton, she was making sure Greg was being taken care of. Did he realize how much she loved him? "Hopefully." she said to herself as she took off with the laundry.

Livi started cooking her cute little ass off. The first thing she did was to open up box with the huge crock pot she bought and started her spaghetti sauce. Then she did her meatballs and spare ribs, partially frying them in extra virgin olive oil. She then drained about three quarters of oil from the pan and dumped the meat and the rest of the oil into the crock pot to simmer all day. The sauce would be thick enough to eat with a fork when it was done. They would have stuffed shells for dinner, and she found a baking pan for those.

Then she made two huge meat loaves, tons and tons of breaded chicken and breaded pork chops and started a huge pot of chili. She had also bought little TV dinners Greg could just throw in his microwave or toaster oven. The smells coming from Greg's apartment drew Nancy and Bill back and Livi made lunch for them. By this time, Nancy had finished with the laundry and Livi took it back to the bedroom. Bill and Nancy left in about a half hour, leaving Livi to finish her mission alone since she had refused all help.

The other food she had cooked was cool now, so she got the Food Saver out and began preparing meal packets to freeze and started to bake the stuffed shells. She found the garlic bread she bought and got it ready to pop in the oven when Greg came home. Now Greg's freezer was nearly full. Livi cleaned up the kitchen and took the trash out.

It was cold out because of the rain. When Livi came in, she noticed that even though she had literally been cooking up a storm, the apartment was a little chilly. She turned the heat up a bit and built a fire to warm the place up a bit.

It was a little after three now, and Livi was exhausted from all the work she had done for that jackass. Her sauce was almost done, so she turned the crock pot down as low as it could go. It would be done in time for dinner. In addition to all the food she had bought for Greg, she had stocked up on paper plates and plastic ware. Her reasoning was that if he didn't have to wash too many dishes, he might eat in.

She had also bought a lot of plastic freezer containers, planning on making sauce one more time before she left and freezing it. Now all she had to do was come up with a plan to keep food in his apartment. She would find out if he had someone coming in to clean for him and maybe if Livi paid for it herself, she would cook a meal for Greg once in a while.

The apartment was warmer now and even though it was quite dreary out because of the rain, the fireplace made the apartment cozy and warm. Livi grabbed the remote and collapsed on the couch. Within minutes she was sound asleep.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Greg was more snarky than he usually was. Cuddy, still startled that he had come to work early, tried talking to him, but he became so surly with her, she backed off. He stayed in the Clinic until it was quiet enough for him to escape to one of his hiding places. One of the nurses saw him slip off, and she immediately called Cuddy. When Cuddy tried to find out where House was, all the nurse could do was shrug her shoulders.

"He got on to a full elevator, Dr. Cuddy. He could be anywhere." the nurse said defensively. "We both know that." Cuddy had not yet been named Dean and hospital administrator. Shortly after the debacle (in her eyes anyway) of House's surgery, she had been promoted, and put in charge of the clinic. Her appointment to Dean would happen in less than a year. Almost late for a meeting, she paged Wilson to track down the cranky man who was their friend.

Wilson found him in an empty patient room staring blankly at the TV.

"Leg bothering you?" Wilson asked.

"No more than usual." House replied as he massaged his leg, offering no more information to his friend, keeping his face blank.

"You're snapping at people more than usual today." Wilson said. "If it's not the leg, what is it? Stacey?" Wrong choice of words, since Wilson didn't know about House's epiphany yesterday when Livi was chewing him out. He didn't even know Livi was here.

House glared at his friend. "Don't even say that woman's name to me. It was a mistake from the beginning and I'm trying to move on."

That much openness from House startled Wilson. While House had been brutally honest from the day they met, he had always guarded his own feelings, especially after his surgery and Stacey's departure. Something else was up, so Wilson just stood there and waited. After about ten minutes, House gave in.

"Night before last, I got drunk and I called Livi and spilled my guts to her. She said she would get here as soon as she could, but I honestly expected her to call you to come and see if I was all right. I realized what I had done when I woke up yesterday and hoped it was all a drunken dream, that she wasn't coming. I thought about trying to call her, but I decided I just wouldn't answer the door. As it turned out, even if I had called her, it would have been a waste. She cancelled her vacation was already on the plane to Philly. My super let her in when I wouldn't answer the door, and she gave me hell about everything, the surgery, Stacey, not asking her for a consult, pretty much anything she could think of. Then we went to bed."

"You made love to her after all that? She let you?" Wilson was stunned. His concern about House's drinking combined with his Vicodin use evaporated when he heard he actually reached out to Livi. "House, that's a good thing!" Wilson said excitedly.

"Wilson, are you nuts?" House wondered.

"House, you reached out to someone that you didn't have to pay or was drunk. You have a human side after all!"

"Wilson, you're an idiot! Our sex life was always good, whether we fought or not! The problem was when she woke up this morning and wanted to make me breakfast!" House flung back at his friend.

"Well, I wondered where you were this morning. I had an extra bagel waiting for you, and I ended giving it to my assistant." Wilson said with a laugh.

"Wilson, you moron, there's not one speck of food in my apartment! Not even cereal!" House yelled.

"Wait a minute!" Wilson yelled back. "You mean you haven't bought anything at all for yourself since Stacey left? McCaffrey's is two blocks away from you! They deliver! What did Livi do?" Wilson wanted to know. He had only met Livi twice before, and the only things he knew about her was that House was a different person when he was with her (still snarky but more communicative) and Livi had a bad temper. He still didn't know what made Livi tick or what held them together all these years, practically all their lives.

"What do you think she did? She gave me hell again and went to McDonald's to get us breakfast while I took a shower. Then she threw me out of my own apartment. Why did I call her, Wilson? Why am I always hurting her?" House slumped back in his chair.

"House, don't you get it? You really love her. I think you've loved her all your life and she loves you, but you don't why she does. You claim you're hurting her and you're turning this into one of your puzzles. Love's not a puzzle, House. Don't make it one. It's just there." Wilson said seriously.

"Wilson, she barely acknowledged me leaving for work this morning. I don't know what I'm going to find when I go home tonight. Will she have calmed down by then or are we going to fight? I enjoy arguing with her, but not to hurt her." House said, rubbing his chin with his cane.

"Well, you can't hide out at my place. My wife won't let you!" Wilson said, trying to cheer his friend up. "How long is she staying in Princeton? I'd like to spend some time with her, get to know her better. She's a good influence on you."

House glared at Wilson. "She usually goes to Florida for three weeks every year, so I'm guessing that's how long she'll be here." House snarked.

"Great!" Wilson said. "Maybe Julie will invite you both to dinner and we can get to know each other better." Wilson had a big smile on his face now.

"Wilson, do you really think Julie is going to invite me over for dinner?" House said, enjoying the pained look on his friend's face.

"Well, then maybe I'll just take the two of you out one night before she leaves." Wilson said, recovering quickly after realizing House was right. Julie would rather slit her wrists than invite House over for dinner.

"No, you will not take us to dinner!" House snapped at his friend. I want to be alone with her. I don't need you butting in, giving us advice." House snapped.

Wilson looked hurt, but quickly recovered again. "Have it your way, House, but Cuddy's looking for you - again." he said as he left House to his musings.

"Screw her." House mumbled as he looked at his watch. Almost four. He would sneak back up to his office, pick up his briefcase and sneak out the back way so no one in the Clinic would see him. He would take Livi out for dinner and take it from there. Wilson was right about one thing. He was in love with Livi.

That really was a new emotion for him and he was at a loss as to what he should do. It would be years before he would learn that he didn't have to do anything special for Livi. Just being with her would go a long way toward healing him by the time he came to that realization.

House unlocked the door to his apartment only to be greeted by the most heavenly smells of food. He dropped his briefcase on the piano bench and noticed Livi fast asleep on the couch. That would wait. He had to investigate those marvelous smells.

He walked into the kitchen and saw the crock pot on the counter. He picked up the lid and started drooling. Livi made spaghetti sauce as good or better than her grandmother did. He put the lid back down and started to see what else Livi had been up to today. He opened up all the cupboards and saw them all chock full of food. He opened the fridge and freezer. Same thing. He quietly limped down the hall to see that all the laundry had been done and clean sheets put on the bed, covers turned invitingly down. Greg got an idea. One of the laundry baskets had clean towels in it. He grabbed a few towels, his pajamas and a robe for Livi and put them in the bathroom.

On his way back to the living room to wake Livi up, he detoured to the kitchen. He found a piece of bread and dipped it in the sauce. "Oh, my God!" he said. "I can't wait for dinner now!" He went to the couch and slowly sat down next to Livi. He leaned down to kiss her awake, startling her awake.

"Take it easy, Liv." he whispered against her neck. "It's only me."

Livi sat up and put her arms around him, responding eagerly to him. Her hands wandered down to the bulge that was already forming in Greg's jeans. He groaned as her hands began working their magic. Once she had his cock free of his jeans, she lowered her head and took him in her mouth, swirling the pre-cum around him with her tongue, sucking and licking him. Greg was having a hard time controlling himself.

"Liv, do we have time for a shower before dinner?" Greg managed to ask. By now, he was thrusting into her mouth with abandon, and he didn't know how long he could hold off. Livi stopped what she was doing and stood up. She held her hand out to help him up and they went to the bathroom where Greg undressed Livi as slowly as he could and enjoying every minute of it. When she was naked, she turned to start the shower and Greg got himself undressed in record time. Livi stepped under the warm water and held her hand out to Greg again. He gingerly stepped in the shower and immediately wrapped his arms around her.

As the water spilled over them, they soaped each other up, with Greg spending a lot of time massaging Livi's breasts and rubbing between her legs. When he was satisfied that she was ready, he gently pushed her up against the wall and spread her legs, slowly entering her. She lifted her leg up around Greg's hip as he began thrusting inside her first gently but then with the same abandon as he had done in her mouth out on the couch.

Livi was moaning softly which each thrust Greg gave her. "Don't stop, Greg, please! Make me come!" Livi mumbled against Greg's shoulder.

He slipped his hand between them and rubbed her clit, applying pressure as he pumped her hard. Finally, he felt her clamp down on him with a flow of hot moisture, her orgasm coming in waves and he came right along with her. Livi's leg slowly dropped down to the floor. Slowly, their breathing returned to normal as the hot water started running out.

On rubbery legs, Livi got out of the shower first and handed a towel to Greg as he carefully stepped out. They spent a very pleasurable few minutes drying each other off before Livi remembered dinner.

"I think we're dry enough now, Greg." she said with a laugh as he leaned down to nuzzle her breasts. "It's dinner time." she said softly as she held his head close to her.

"Mmm. I think I'll stick with desert tonight." he mumbled as he went back and forth between her nipples.

Reluctantly, Livi pushed him away. "Come on, Greg. I made us a nice dinner."

As reluctantly as Livi pushed him away, Greg reluctantly straightened up. Livi tossed him his pajamas and tactfully left the room so he could get dressed.

"Greg?" Livi called from the kitchen.

"Yeah, baby? What's wrong? Greg answered as he used his cane to push the coffee table closer to the couch.

"Could you get the fire going again? I'm cold." Livi answered as she put the garlic bread in the oven. Greg walked in the kitchen.

"After what we just did, you're cold?" he said while nuzzling her neck, inhaling her scent.

"It's not summer time yet and it would be nice to eat in front of the fire, wouldn't it?" Livi asked.

"Well, I guess that's not too much to ask since you apparently staged a raid on the grocery store today in my behalf." Greg said with a smile as he turned her around to face him.

"Oh, you noticed." Livi said sarcastically.

Greg just shook his head. "She's probably trying to pick a fight with me, but I'm not going to bite this time." he said to himself.

He gave her a short bow. "One fire coming right up, my lady." As Livi leaned down to take the bread out of the oven, Greg smacked her ass. She whirled, holding the bread in front of her.

"Do that again, and you don't get desert or breakfast tomorrow morning!" Livi had a very serious expression on her face.

"Yes ma'am" Greg said in mock sincerity. "One fire coming up." he turned and slowly limped out of the kitchen. Livi noticed. The rain hadn't let up all day, and it was one of those bone chilling early spring rains. Greg had to be in misery with his leg. Heat would help, and she was glad she had thought of the fire earlier. It would be a good start, as well as adding a little romance after she ripped into him this morning for having no food in his apartment. Then after dinner, she would give him a massage and then they would generate their own heat.

By the time she came out with the plates, Greg had a roaring fire going and had poured the wine to go with dinner. He grabbed his plate out of Livi's hand and went to town. He was ready for seconds before Livi was half way through with her plate. She just smiled in appreciation and went to fill his plate up again.

Livi had just finished her second glass of wine and combined with the close proximity of the fire, she was feeling, well, she was getting horny! While she was in the kitchen, she put the leftovers away and sliced some cherry pie for each of them. She wasn't going to make coffee unless Greg asked for it. She had a little buzz and wanted to stay that way.

As she walked back to the living room carrying the food on a tray now, she didn't realize her robe had fallen open and Greg had a bird's eye view of those gorgeous big breasts of hers. He felt Greg Junior give a little twitch, getting ready for another appearance. How was he going to get through the rest of dinner now? He barely remembered the last time Livi cooked for him, so he decided to satisfy that hunger first before he took care of the other. He kept her wine glass full, although he didn't realize easy it would be to sidetrack Livi right now.

Dinner and desert finished, Livi piled everything on the tray and gingerly got up. Greg smiled. He knew she was in this shape because they were sitting right in front of the fire place and she probably hadn't eaten since this morning, except maybe to taste what she was cooking. That much was true. Although she had made lunch for Bill and his wife, she hadn't eaten, so the wine and lack of food were contributing to her present state of tipsiness. His leg had been killing him when he came home, but the heat from the fire helped. He managed to get up and slowly limped into the kitchen, wanting to help Livi.

She had rinsed all the dishes and put them in the sink ready to be washed. All the leftovers were put away, and the garbage ready to be taken out in the morning. As she started to make the dishwater, Greg stopped her and turned the water off.

"I'll help you do those in the morning." Greg said, looking deeply into those midnight blue eyes.

"You mean you'll leave me with them and the breakfast dishes tomorrow, don't you?" Livi said giggling while Greg's hands roamed up and down her back.

"That's a good idea!" he said, leering down at her.

"How bad is your leg today, sweetheart?" Livi asked.

"It's raining. It's always bad when it rains, especially when it's cold. I'm glad you wanted a fire." Greg said, trying to keep his expression neutral.

"Okay, here's the deal." Livi said seriously. You go back out in the living room and I'll be right out and give you a massage."

"Is that all?" Greg asked as he cupped her ass tightly in his hands, pressing her against him.

"Maybe, maybe not." Livi said as she worked herself free and headed for the bathroom. She had picked up some cool mint lotion and a heating pad for Greg. "Just the lotion for now." she decided as she picked up the towels Greg left on the floor and got clean one.

Greg had poured them two more glasses of wine, got some throw pillows and managed to park himself on the floor close to the fire, leaning against a chair.

Livi knelt down next to him and first started massaging his shoulders after she pulled his t-shirt off. Greg moaned with satisfaction as she found the knots in his shoulders and she leaned in to nibble his neck. Without taking his pajamas off, Livi started gently rubbing his left leg, then moving the damaged right one, pretending she didn't notice the tent beginning to form in his pajamas. So into the massage, Greg just reached up and slid Livi's robe from her shoulders so he saw everything form the waist up.

Without him realizing it, Livi had been able to slide Greg's pajamas down and his boner sprang out in all it's glory. She took some of the lotion and rubbed it between her hands and began massaging his legs all over again. Greg was as limp as an over cooked piece of linguini under her hands. Livi swallowed the last of her wine and wiped her hands dry. Before he knew it, Livi was giving him a blow job. That jolted him to complete awareness.

"Liv, do you do this for all your patients?" Greg said with a very satisfied look on his face.

Livi stopped what she was doing and looked up at Greg, rubbing his dick over her breasts.

"Only one." she said as she got up, straddled him and slowly slid his dick inside her. As she moved up and down, her breasts were bouncing in front of Greg's face. He latched on to one of her nipples, sucking hard and slowing her movements. He stopped sucking her nipples and looked right into her eyes. She was so hot and wet, it wouldn't take long to push her over.

"Make me come, Greg!" Livi muttered as she lowered her head to kiss Greg as he controlled her movements. He slipped his hand between them and started rubbing her clit. He was more than ready to unload in her, but he wanted her to go first. A little more pressure, and he was rewarded with her clenching her walls around him and another hot flow of moisture like last night. She buried her face in his neck as her orgasm hit her in waves again as she felt Greg's hot cum inside her as he called her name. It took a long time for their breathing to return to normal.

Livi tried to get off Greg so she could help him up, but he wouldn't let her.

"Greg, let's go to bed. You can't stay on the floor all night." Livi said with concern.

"Baby, I made that fire to burn all night. We've got all these pillows and an afghan to cover us. If I lay on my left side and spoon up behind you, my leg will be fine. Your massage helped and all I have to do is keep pressure off it.

Livi agreed that it made sense, but she insisted on doing her nightly routine before going to sleep. She brushed her hair and teeth and went to the bathroom. When she opened the door, Greg was there, his only accessory his cane.

"I have to get ready for bed, too." he said with a crooked grin. In five minutes, he was back out in the living room. Livi had made a little nest of the pillows and was waiting for him. He slowly got down on the floor behind Livi and spooned up against her as he pulled the afghan over them. They were asleep in minutes.

Greg was pleasantly surprised when he woke up the next morning and wasn't in nearly as much pain as he expected to be in after sleeping on the floor. He pressed his morning boner up against Livi's butt. Slowly, she woke up, turned around and gave him the blow job she never finished last night and sent him off to work a happy man.

Greg's cleaning lady (named Lady) came shortly after Greg left for work. She greeted Livi like an old friend. Apparently, Greg had spoken a lot about her since Stacey left and she felt like she knew Livi already. They discussed the sad state of affairs of Greg's empty kitchen. Livi led her to the kitchen and showed her what she had done, and Lady hugged her.

"Ah, Dr. Livi. You are exactly what Dr. Greg needed, but what do we do when the food is all gone?" Lady asked in a worried tone.

"I think I have that solved, Lady. Would you be willing to cook for Greg? I'll pay you myself." Livi said.

"Yes, Dr. Livi, I would be more than happy to do that and you don't have to pay me extra. I like Dr. Greg. He's just so stubborn sometimes I don't know what to do with him.

Livi smiled. "Lady, I've know him since I was six years old. I could tell you stories that would curl your hair! Let's go to McCaffrey's and set up an account for Greg and have you as an authorized user. That way, you can get what you need when you need it. How does that sound?

Lady nodded in happy agreement.

When they got there, Livi asked to speak to the owner or manager. The owner came right over when he heard it was about one of his customers.

"Mr. Nielson, my name is Livia Bonofiglio, Dr. Bonofiglio. I'm a close friend of Dr. Greg House. I would like to make some sort of arrangement or set up an account for him so he can have groceries delivered on a regular basis, and I would like this lady to have full permission to use it. She's Dr. House's housekeeper.

"Dr. Bonofiglio, Dr. House already has an account with us. He's been a good customer for us, but we haven't seen him for a few months and thought he was getting his groceries elsewhere." Mr. Nielson replied as he ushered Livi and Lady back to his office.

"No, he hasn't, Mr. Nielson." Livi said with one of her sweetest smiles. "Dr. House has had a few health issues and it's sometimes difficult for him to get around, and he's also quite stubborn. Too stubborn, it seems to pick up the phone and place an order. I found out yesterday morning that there wasn't even cereal in his apartment. He's been mooching off friends or living on take out!" Mr. Nielson was flabbergasted.

"Doctor, I assure you if we had known, we would have delivered groceries to Dr. House on a regular basis!"

"That's quite all right, Mr. Nielson. As I said before, he's quite stubborn. I went shopping for him yesterday and took care of the most immediate needs, completely restocking his kitchen, but that won't last forever. Lady has agreed that she will cook for Dr, House once the food I made is gone. Is it acceptable to you that she be an authorized user on Dr. House's account?" Livi asked, giving him another one of her sweet smiles. She was quite persuasive.

"But of course, Dr. Bonofiglio. Anything for Dr. House." said Mr. Nielson has he reached for the necessary paperwork. He vaguely remembered seeing this woman in here a few years back, so he knew it wasn't a con on his store or Dr. House

Livi held out her hand. "Mr Nielsen, thank you so much for doing this. I appreciate it more than you know. I can go home knowing that knucklehead won't starve!" She reached into her bag. "Here's my card. It has my office number, pager and cell numbers. If Dr. House gives you any trouble at all or refuses to pay his bill, please send it to me and I will take care of it. As a matter of fact, let me give you some money to put against the account now so there is a credit balance and it will be a few months before Dr. House has the opportunity to blow up. She had seen a branch of her bank on the way over, and knew an out-of-state check wouldn't be a problem. They shook hands to conclude the deal and Mr. Nielsen escorted them to the door.

In the car on the way back to the apartment, Livi asked Lady if she would a paid day off. She was doubtful.

"Don't worry, Lady. The apartment's not that dirty and I can handle it myself and I certainly won't tell Greg!" Livi said conspiratorially. Livi reached into her wallet and gave Lady a hundred dollars. Lady gasped and tried not to take it.

"Lady, I'll be very offended if you don't take this and the day off. I can't even begin to repay you for agreeing to do this for Greg."

"Okay, as long as Dr. Greg doesn't find out." Lady said as she reluctantly took the money.

"Go to the mall and buy yourself a nice pair of shoes." Livi said as Lady got into her car. Lady's eyes lit up at the mention of shoes. Livi smiled. She had yet to meet a woman who didn't have the "shoe gene"!

Livi quickly cleaned the apartment and made fresh meatloaf for dinner. When Greg came home, they had a loud argument over what she had done at McCaffrey's, but it ended almost as quickly as it started because Livi just got up, went into Greg's bedroom, slammed and locked the door. After listening to him apologize for five minutes, she unlocked the door and they had dinner.

For the three weeks Livi was there, they didn't argue anymore. He knew she was right about getting Lady to cook, especially since it wouldn't cost him extra. They went out a couple of times, but most of the time, Livi was happy to cook dinner for him and more than once they slept in front of the fireplace after Livi gave him a massage. Greg managed to keep Wilson at bay and that made Livi happy. It wasn't logical, but she felt that if he tried harder, he could have gotten back in time to stop Stacey from authorizing the surgery.

Finally, it was time for Livi to go back to Pittsburgh. She didn't want to leave and he didn't want her to either, but she had to go back to work. Greg didn't realize that all he had to do was ask and Livi would put in her notice at UPMC and look for a job here. Livi never brought up the subject because she knew what Greg's reaction would be. He would clam up and push her away. He had to be the one to do the asking, and although she saw it in his eyes, the words never came out.

Livi got in her rental car and headed to Philly, wondering when she would get another call for help. It wasn't a matter of if he would call her, it was when, and that worried her because of the way he was popping all the Vicodin. Greg would literally go to Hell and back before he realized that he and Livi belonged together.

As Livi finally dozed off, she definitely decided that she would do whatever was in her power to help Greg. Once he found out where she lived, and actually visited her, she would ask him for his complete medical records, even the ones from Mayfield, and Luke N. Laura as well. She needed the whole picture to decide what tests needed to be run and what treatment she would prescribe.

Tonight, it was Livi's turn to dream about Greg and Sanibel Island.


End file.
